Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has been taken to hospital after her heart was still beating following two lethal injections during her execution, her lawyer says.
Her legal team filed an emergency motion to halt the convicted murderer’s execution as it was happening, saying: “Ms Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring.”
One of her attorneys told the BBC that Pike, 50, was “being provided life-saving measures” in hospital after two syringes of pentobarbital had been administered.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
The attempted execution took place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at about 20:00 local time on Wednesday night.
Pike was given two doses of pentobarbital, and the curtain in the witness room was closed twice, the Associated Press reports.
Media were at some point asked to leave, the news agency said.
Family handout Student Colleen Slemmer was tortured and brutally killed in the 1995 murder
Pike’s legal team said in a statement to the Tennessean newspaper: “Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution.
“We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”
Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion to stay her execution and administer medical care after the lethal injection was apparently botched.
District Judge Clifton L Corker issued a ruling noting that “medical personnel have begun to administer medical care as requested in the motion”.
The Tennessee Department of Correction has said it stands by all the actions it took during the attempted execution.
“The Tennessee Department of Correction followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” department spokesperson Dorinda Carter told the Tennessean newspaper.
“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility,” she said.
