Christa Pike survives two lethal injection attempts in Tennessee

Christa Pike, sentenced to death in Tennessee for the murder of a classmate in 1995, survived two administrations of lethal injection during her execution on Wednesday. According to the journalists who witnessed the procedure, the woman continued breathing after both attempts and had to be later transferred to a hospital.

According to the British media The Guardian, journalist Catherine Sweeney, of Nashville Public Radio, explained that after the two attempts Pike "was still breathing" and that his breathing was "very labored." According to her story, the condemned woman even raised her head and looked around her. At one point, he asked if it was normal for him to feel an area that "burned and hurt." "None of this was normal," Sweeney said after the procedure.

Another witness, journalist Tori Gessner, said that Pike also complained during the process: "My arm feels like it's about to explode. Does this happen?" Gessner later described how the woman went in and out of periods of silence and snoring. According to his testimony, when the chamber curtain was closed for the last time at 8:05 p.m., those present could continue to hear his breathing, which progressively became a staccato sound. At 8:53 p.m., when the microphone was cut off, they could still hear her.

John North, an investigative producer for WBIR television and also a witness to the execution, said as he left the prison that Pike was "probably still alive." Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, described the episode, in statements reported by The New York Times, as "the worst we have seen" and assured that it was unprecedented in the modern era. Gessner, for his part, summed up his experience before NBC with one sentence: "Nothing that happened today was normal, typical, at all."