A Tennessee woman convicted of murder survived two lethal injection doses and was hospitalized Thursday, prompting state officials to halt all executions this year after a second botched procedure in months.
Hours earlier Wednesday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Christa Pike, 50, to become the first woman executed in the southern U.S. state of Tennessee in 200 years, but the attempt failed.
"This event is the worst we've seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era," Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said. "There is no precedent."
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it "followed every step of the state's lawful, established execution protocol," adding Pike was taken to an "off-site medical facility."
Her attorneys said she was transported to a nearby hospital, adding they had not been informed of her condition.
"Tonight the state of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution," the attorneys said in a statement.
Tennessee halted the execution by lethal injection of Tony Carruthers in May after medical staff could not tap a vein.
Gov. Bill Lee called for a "comprehensive, third-party review" after Pike's failed execution.
"The remaining scheduled execution will not be carried out this year," Lee said, apparently referencing the execution of convicted killer Gary Wayne Sutton scheduled for Dec. 3.
Pike was scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. (3 p.m. GMT) at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where witnesses including journalists were present for the injections.
Kim Chandler, a media witness for The Associated Press, told CBS News, "Pike appeared notably awake as the execution began."
After the blinds of the execution chamber closed for the final time, Pike "could be heard loudly snoring, clearly very alive in the chamber until media witnesses were told to leave the area," Chandler said.
During a livestream, an ambulance with its lights flashing left the site of the execution. It was unclear whether it was transporting Pike.
The execution procedure went ahead hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it could proceed, with liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting.
"The Court's decision ... unnecessarily prevents that lower court from giving Pike's claim due consideration," the dissenting justices wrote.
"Worse, the Court grants such extraordinary relief solely to allow the state to execute Pike before litigation over her conviction has properly run its course in the lower courts."
The case has sparked debate over capital punishment for young criminals.
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job training camp for young people.
The killing gained national attention after Slemmer's body was found with a pentagram, often seen as a satanic symbol, carved in her chest.
Pike's lawyers argued she should be granted clemency because of her young age and mental health issues at the time of the killing.
"She was 18 when she committed her crime and she was deeply mentally ill," they wrote in a clemency petition to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who said he would not intervene.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Tuesday an application for a stay of execution, which argued Pike's history as a victim of sexual assault, post-traumatic stress disorder and a blood condition meant a lethal injection would cause "needless suffering."
Independent United Nations human rights experts have urged the U.S. government and Tennessee authorities to "immediately halt" the execution and commute her death sentence.
In the U.S., only 18 women have been executed since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
