Death row inmate, Christa Pike, remained alive after receiving two doses of a lethal injection drug during an execution attempt in Tennessee, United States, her lawyers said.
Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday after the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the execution following a last-minute legal delay.
However, her legal team said the execution did not go as planned, claiming that Pike remained conscious and had a heartbeat more than an hour after the drug was administered.
Court documents filed by her lawyers alleged that Pike was given two syringes of pentobarbital but failed to lose consciousness.
“Ms Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,” the lawyers wrote.
Witnesses who observed the execution said the process lasted unusually long, with the curtain to the execution chamber being closed and reopened several times.
Associated Press journalist Kim Chandler, who witnessed executions in other states, said Pike appeared awake when the procedure began.
“I would say that Pike appeared noticeably awake as the execution began,” she said.
Witnesses also reported hearing Pike gasp and later snore loudly inside the chamber.
“The blinds were closed for the first time to the execution chamber at 7:46pm, they opened again at 7:49pm.
“Her mouth fell open a few times and she began to loudly snore. She gasped a few times.
“The curtain to the execution chamber closed for the final time at 8:06pm and she could be heard loudly snoring, clearly very alive, in the chamber until media witnesses were told to leave the area at about 8:53pm.”
Emergency vehicles were later seen leaving the prison with their lights and sirens activated, while prison officials had yet to confirm whether Pike had died or provide a time of death.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she killed when she was 18.
Pike had said she believed Slemmer was attempting to take her boyfriend, who was later sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing.
Before the execution, Pike’s lawyers had challenged the use of lethal injection, arguing that her medical circumstances, including small veins, could make the procedure difficult and potentially torturous.
Pike had also requested an all-female execution team, citing a history of sexual abuse and violence that left her afraid of being restrained by men during her final moments.
The incident follows another troubled execution attempt in Tennessee this year.
In May, death row inmate Tony Carruthers was granted a one-year reprieve after officials failed to establish an intravenous line despite repeated attempts.
According to Carruthers’ legal team, the execution team punctured him more than a dozen times while trying to establish the line.
