Christa Pike's attorney said she is still alive a day after she survived two doses of lethal injection drugs on Wednesday. The inmate is in critical condition and is receiving life-saving medical care, her legal team told reporters Thursday afternoon, reported Yahoo.news.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has since paused executions in
the state.
Pike, 50, remained alive and snoring loudly after
being given two doses of pentobarbital, her attorneys and other witnesses said.
She was subsequently taken to a hospital.
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Lee ordered "a comprehensive, third-party review
to determine exactly what occurred" and said that another scheduled
execution later this year had been paused.
"There are very few answers this morning. It's
very early," Lee told reporters Thursday morning. "There are a lot of
questions. The people of our state deserve to have those questions answered.
"This is a tragedy. There is no one who wanted
what happened last night to happen. It's deeply disturbing to me that this has
happened in this state."
May Martinez, the mother of Pike's victim, Colleen
Slemmer, told NBC News the execution attempt had been a "mess,"
adding, "They didn't say anything, and then, all of a sudden, they asked
all the victims to leave. We didn't know anything until we got up to the office
and saw the commissioner. And he said that it didn't work ... and she's on her
way to the hospital."
In a statement posted on Facebook, Sen. Marsha Blackburn called for the
state to return to the electric chair as a means of execution. "This
situation is tragic," she said. "Christa Pike should have been
executed long ago. Now, this botched process is extending the pain for the
family of Colleen Slemmer. While there should be a thorough review of what
happened and why the process failed, the answer is simple: bring back the
electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly."
Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m.
Wednesday for killing Slemmer in 1995, at the age of 18. She would have been
the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
An appeals court stopped the lethal injection just an
hour before it was to start, a stay that was subsequently overturned by the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Media witnesses said officials raised the curtains to
the execution chamber at 7:27 p.m., showing Pike strapped to a gurney.
"I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life, and that
is in love," she said in her "last" words.
However, Pike remained conscious after the first dose.
Nashville Banner reporter Steven Hale said she lifted her head off the gurney
at 7:54 p.m. She also reportedly asked prison officials if her arm was supposed
to feel that way.
Tori Gessner, a journalist with WKRN News 2 in
Nashville, said Pike was seen pointing at her arm and asking, "Does this
happen like that?"
By 8:26 p.m., witnesses reported that the second dose
of pentobarbital had been administered.
Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed
curtain until the microphone was cut off at 8:53 p.m. At that time, an
announcement was made to escort media witnesses out of the area.
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