Warning: This article contains details that readers may find distressing
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator on Thursday night, after authorities failed to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers say in court filings.
Pike, 50, was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance.
Pike remained critically ill and was being treated at a Nashville-area hospital.
Lawyers for Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, are seeking to have her sentence commuted after the failed execution attempt.
Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion on Friday to preserve “any and all evidence” related to her botched execution.
Hospital staff are working to save her life and clear the drug used, pentobarbital, from her system, the filing states.
During the execution attempt, prison officials tried to start intravenous (IV) lines by using at least seven needles on Pike, according to her lawyers.
At one point, Pike herself offered guidance of where they could try.
“One needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed,” the filing states.
While receiving the two doses, “she could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure”, her lawyers said.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered an independent review into Pike’s botched execution and he halted all executions in the state for the year.
The state’s department of correction has defended the method it used, saying “the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out”.
Authorities are yet to say whether they will try again to execute Pike. They have not not offered any explanations about what went wrong.