Independent inquiry ordered after failed execution of Pike, who was convicted of 1994 murder

Tennessee’s governor on Thursday said it was “deeply disturbing” that his state botched the execution of a death row prisoner who remained alive and snoring 40 minutes after receiving a double dose of the lethal drug that should have quickly killed her.

Bill Lee, a Republican, has suspended all executions in the state until at least the end of the year and ordered an independent inquiry after Wednesday night’s failed attempt to put to death Christa Pike, who was convicted of murder, at the execution chamber in Nashville.

Meanwhile, Pike, 50, remained in the hospital on Thursday afternoon. “We don’t have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment, but we do know that she is alive right now and receiving life-saving medical care,” Randy Spivey, one of her attorneys, said at an afternoon press conference.

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Lawyers for Pike filed an emergency motion to the Tennessee supreme court after the second pentobarbital dose was administered asking to halt and stay the execution, saying she was in “unnecessary agony”, and that the state was violating her right to be executed free of cruel and unusual punishment.

In a later statement, they said: “Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution.

“We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy,” the statement said.

“Christa is being treated at a nearby hospital. We have not been informed as to her condition.”