The execution of Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike has reportedly failed after authorities administered lethal injections, with witnesses saying she appeared to remain alive.
Pike’s lawyers said the 49-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital following the attempted execution on Thursday.
“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” her attorneys said in a statement. They added that they had not been informed of her condition.
The execution was scheduled to take place at 10am local time at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, shortly after the US Supreme Court cleared the way for it to proceed.
Witnesses, including journalists, were present as officials administered two injections of pentobarbital.
John North, an investigative journalist with WBIR who witnessed the execution, said it appeared that the procedure had not gone as expected.
“When we left the building, so far as we knew, she was probably still alive,” North said.
An ambulance with its lights flashing was also seen leaving the prison during a livestream of the execution, although it was not immediately clear whether Pike was inside.
Tennessee corrections officials had not publicly confirmed the outcome of the execution or responded to requests for comment.
The Supreme Court’s decision to allow the execution to proceed came despite opposition from three liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The justices argued that the decision prevented a lower court from fully considering Pike’s legal challenge before her execution.
The case has renewed debate over the use of the death penalty, particularly in cases involving offenders who were young at the time of their crimes.
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend, Christopher Lambert, were convicted of beating and killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp for young people.
The case attracted national attention after Slemmer’s body was discovered with a pentagram carved into her chest.
Pike’s lawyers had argued that her age and mental health at the time of the killing should have been considered in seeking clemency.