WASHINGTON: Convicted US murderer Christa Pike is unconscious on a ventilator after a botched attempt to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers said in a court filing Friday.
After a dramatic day of legal wrangling, prison officials in Tennessee on Wednesday injected two deadly doses of the highly toxic drug pentobarbital into Pike for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer.
But witnesses said that the 50-year-old Pike remained awake longer than expected and was later heard "loudly snoring" before an ambulance rushed her to a nearby hospital.
Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, who also was in attendance, angrily told a local news outlet that the "state owes me a big apology," and that it had failed her family.
