Tennessee attempted to execute Pike via lethal injection on September 30, but after two lethal doses of pentobarbital, the 50-year-old was still breathing.
Officials transported Pike to the hospital, where she was on a ventilator for almost a week.
On October 6, Pike woke up, but her lawyers say she can’t swallow or move her hands and arms, and that she has a blood clot and pneumonia. Pike’s attorneys also said her hands and arms are “tremendously swollen,” and they’re unsure when or if she’ll be able to use them again.
Shortly after the execution failed, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada resigned.
Before the incident occurred, Pike’s defense team requested she be executed via hanging or a female firing squad as they feared this exact situation would occur. The inmate struggled with thrombocytosis, which causes excess blood platelets. This makes the veins harder to locate and increases the chance of them collapsing.
During the attempt, media witnesses reported Pike saying she felt like her arm was going to burst. This is not supposed to occur during a lethal injection.