Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike has been taken to hospital still alive after receiving two lethal injections, according to her lawyers.
Pike's legal team filed an emergency motion to halt the execution as it was happening, saying: "Ms Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring."
One of Pike's attorneys told the BBC that she was "being provided life-saving measures" after receiving the two injections.
Execution delayed and Supreme Court ruling
The execution was previously delayed on Wednesday, as the court needed to consider whether Pike's allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.
The Supreme Court's three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the ruling, with Ms Sotomayor writing that it clears the way for the execution to happen "before her still-pending legal challenges to her conviction can be properly considered".
The high court came to the decision that the execution would proceed.
Conviction and victim's family reaction
Pike was convicted at age 18, alongside her boyfriend, for stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville.
The case caught the attention of media wide and far as Colleen was found with an inverted pentagram - a symbol that is associated with satanic groups - carved into her chest.
Pike has denied carving the symbol herself.
Despite Pike's claims that she did not 'even realise the gravity of what I'd done' two other inmates at the camp later testified that she had bragged about the murder before and after, even showing them a piece of Colleen's skull.
Colleen Slemmer's mother travelled to Tennessee from Florida for the execution, revealing she has waited decades to see Pike's sentence carried out.
She said: "Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run.
"Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst."
Pike's mental health and statement
After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her clemency petition, she said she only wanted to fight Ms Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she could not "put the brakes on".
"I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I'd done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime," Pike said in a statement.
The state of Tennessee are yet to comment.
