Tennessee has suspended all remaining executions scheduled for this year after officials failed to put death-row inmate Christa Gail Pike to death in a lethal injection attempt.
Pike, 50, who was convicted of murder three decades ago, was reported to be in critical condition after surviving two doses of pentobarbital, according to her lawyer, reports AP.
Her attorneys said Pike continued breathing and was loudly snoring for nearly an hour following the administration of the drugs. They said they had not been informed of her condition after she was admitted to the hospital.
Pike was scheduled to be executed at 10am on Wednesday for the 1995 murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 when she was convicted of torturing and killing Slemmer.
The execution was preceded by a legal dispute. An appeals court issued a stay about an hour before the scheduled procedure, but the US Supreme Court later overturned the order, clearing the way for Tennessee officials to proceed.
Pike’s lawyers said the execution team made at least seven attempts to find a suitable vein. The attempts reportedly left her with blistering and burning injuries.
Her attorneys said the injuries suggested that some of the lethal drug may have entered the tissue around the injection sites rather than her bloodstream.
Randy Spivey, a lawyer for Pike, described the attempted execution as “cruel and torturous” and called on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment. Lee had previously rejected such a request.
Following the failed execution, Lee ordered a comprehensive review by an independent third party and suspended the state’s remaining scheduled execution for the year.
“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities,” Lee said in a statement. He added that people in Tennessee expect executions to be conducted in a manner that is “not only legal and constitutional, but is effective.”
The Tennessee Department of Correction said the execution team followed every step of the state’s established execution protocol, which had been approved by the Attorney General’s Office.
The state’s protocol provides for a second set of drug syringes to be administered if an inmate has not died after the first set. However, it does not specify what should happen if the inmate remains alive after the second administration.
Robin M Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, described what happened to Pike as an unprecedented failure.
Maher said seven other people had previously survived medical complications during executions after officials failed to gain access to a vein. However, she said, no one had previously remained alive after receiving the drugs used in such executions.
Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Slemmer’s mother, who has strongly supported Pike’s execution, attended the scheduled execution at the prison.
Pike has spent decades on death row and has said she regrets the killing. The failed attempt was Tennessee’s second unsuccessful execution this year, prompting the governor to halt further executions while the independent review is conducted.
