When death was expected, life held on.
Christa Pike, a 50-year-old death row inmate in Tennessee, survived an attempted execution after two lethal injections failed.
Prison officials administered two syringes of pentobarbital, but Pike lost consciousness while her heart continued to beat. She was reportedly still breathing and snoring.
Her lawyers immediately filed an emergency motion to stop the execution, and Pike was taken to hospital for life-saving treatment.
The execution came after a last-minute legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which allowed the lethal injection to proceed.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 at the time of the killing.
