Christa Pike, a Tennessee death row prisoner, has been rushed to hospital still alive following the administration of two lethal injections, according to her legal representatives.
Pike's defence team submitted an emergency motion to stop the execution while it was underway, stating: "Ms Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring."
One of Pike's solicitors confirmed she was "being provided life-saving measures" after being given the two injections, reports the Daily Star. A capital punishment specialist described it as an unprecedented malfunction. "We have not been informed as to her condition," Pike's lawyers said in a statement.
Governor orders review
Governor Bill Lee announced in a statement that he has commissioned "a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred" and that planned executions will not proceed this year.
"Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State's most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective," he said. The Tennessee Department of Correction stated in a press release that they "followed every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General's Office."
The state's execution protocol stipulates that a secondary set of drug syringes should be administered "if the inmate is not deceased" following the first set. However, it fails to outline what should occur if the subject remains alive after the second set has been given.
Background of the case
Pike was found guilty at age 18, together with her boyfriend, for stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. The case attracted widespread media attention as Colleen was discovered with an inverted pentagram - a symbol linked to satanic groups - carved into her chest.
Pike has refuted claims that she carved the symbol herself. Despite Pike's assertions that she did not 'even realise the gravity of what I'd done', two fellow inmates at the facility subsequently testified that she had boasted about the murder both before and afterwards, even displaying a fragment of Colleen's skull to them.
Colleen Slemmer's mother made the journey to Tennessee from Florida for the execution, disclosing she has spent decades awaiting Pike's sentence to be implemented.
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."
Following the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her clemency petition, she stated she had only intended to fight Ms Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied assault 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.
Execution details
Pike had been set to become the first woman executed in more than 200 years on Wednesday, though the execution had previously been postponed while the court assessed whether Pike's claims of childhood sexual abuse had been fully taken into account during 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".
Despite an appeals court halting the lethal injection just an hour before it was scheduled to commence, the high court ultimately ruled that the execution should go ahead.
Officials administered two doses of pentobarbital to Pike, her legal team stated in court filings late on Wednesday. Robin M Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre, said what Pike experienced is "singular and unparalleled".
Seven other individuals have survived medical complications stemming from the execution team's inability to locate a vein for administering lethal injection drugs, though nobody has remained alive following the administration of the substances used in such executions, she noted.
Pike's legal team stated: "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."
Media observers watching from a separate chamber reported that officials opened the curtains to the execution room at 7.27pm, revealing Pike secured to a gurney. Pike stayed conscious and at one stage lifted her head and questioned prison staff whether her arm was meant to feel that way.
It remained unclear what she was referring to. By 8.26pm, execution observers noted that the second dose of pentobarbital had been given. Pike could still be heard snoring behind the drawn curtain until the microphone was switched off at 8.53pm.
At that moment there was an instruction to remove media observers from the vicinity.
