Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike has been taken to hospital after an attempt to execute her failed, her lawyer says.
According to BBC, Ms Pike, 50, remained alive after two doses of pentobarbital were administered during the attempted lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday night.
Her legal team filed an emergency motion to halt the execution while it was taking place, saying Ms Pike had lost consciousness but still had a heartbeat and was audibly snoring.
One of her attorneys told BBC that Ms Pike was being given life-saving treatment at hospital.
The Associated Press reported that the curtain in the witness room was closed twice after the two doses of pentobarbital were administered.
Ms Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, met at a job training camp for troubled teenagers.
Ms Pike was 18 when Slemmer was killed.
The attempted execution had been scheduled to take place at about 20:00 local time on Wednesday.
Ms Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Source: BBC
