Tennessee Execution

Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed. But after two injections, she kept breathing. She made snoring sounds, she talked, she said her arm was hurting. The Associated Press was among those who witnessed her failed execution. She was strapped to the gurney, IV inserted to her body, when prison officials raised the curtain to the execution room at 7:27 p.m. But then she survived two doses of pentobarbital. Prison officials closed the curtain so the witnesses could no longer see, but they heard her breathing and what sounded like snoring coming from the death chamber. Eventually, the state abandoned the execution, and Pike was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Her attorneys said Thursday she was in critical condition.