Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike remained alive after officials administered two lethal injections during an attempted execution on Wednesday, according to her attorneys and media witnesses.
At approximately 8:26 p.m. local time, witnesses reported that both syringes had been administered, but Pike was still breathing and audibly snoring. Her attorneys said she appeared to receive two doses of pentobarbital and remained alive more than 40 minutes after the second dose.
Officials later escorted media witnesses out of the execution area. The Tennessee Department of Correction said it could not immediately explain what had happened during the procedure.
The attempted execution came after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a last-minute stay that had temporarily blocked the procedure. Pike had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she killed when she was 18. Her attorneys have challenged the execution on multiple grounds, including concerns about the execution process.
