Tennessee failed to execute the lone woman on its death row as planned Wednesday, after injecting her with a lethal drug, a stunning development after the Supreme Court had stepped in to allow the state to put her to death.Attorneys for Christa Pike said Wednesday night that she was being treated at a hospital, but they did not know her condition.A spokesperson for the Department of Correction did not answer an emailed question whether she was alive but said she was “transported to an off-site medical facility.”Pike, 50, is the state’s only woman on death row.
She was convicted of murdering a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995, when she was 18 years old, and sentenced to death.In a news conference Wednesday night, journalists who witnessed the botched execution described snoring and complaints from Pike about pain, as well as her kicking her feet so often that she knocked off the sheets laid on her.At times, the curtain was closed and journalists could only hear sounds.In a federal court filing seeking to halt her execution, Pike’s lawyers said witnesses saw executioners injecting “both syringes of lethal injection chemicals,” but that Pike remained alive.They said Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat” and that curtains to the death chamber “have gone down twice,” according to the lawyers.In a phone interview with NBC News early Thursday morning, May Martinez, the mother of victim Slemmer, described the failed execution attempt.“It was a mess,” she said.Gov.
Bill Lee, a Republican, said in a statement that he was ordering “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.” He added that the last remaining execution for this year in Tennessee will not be carried out as planned.‘Nothing about today was normal’An ambulance was seen arriving at the prison where Pike was to be executed and then leaving.Medical aid was being administered, according to online federal court records.“It appeare...