Tennessee inmate Christa Pike reportedly survived two lethal injection attempts, with the state's Governor halting executions after the incident.
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The 50-year-old was sentenced to death back in 1995 for her role in the torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer, Pike's 19-year-old Job Corps classmate in Knoxville. When the sentence was carried out at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, two doses of the lethal drug failed to kill Pike.
According to the Associated Press and Nashville outlet WSMV, the inmate's attorney said she was alive and snoring when she was transported from the prison to a hospital following the botched lethal injection.
"They went through two rounds, and she was still breathing at the end. It was very ragged; she lifted her head up and was looking around at one point. She said there was a spot that was burning and hurting. And asked if that was normal," WPLN's Catherine Sweeney recalled at a press conference after the incident.
"None of that was normal," Sweeney added.
UPDATE: Tennessee officials say Christa Pike's execution went "very ragged, very poorly."
— AZ Intel (@AZ_Intel_)
Her attorney said a bit ago that Pike "has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring." pic.twitter.com/mXBwcygLMa
