Christa Pike on ventilator and unconscious after failed Tennessee execution

Christa Pike, pictured after being sentenced to death in 1996, was set to be executed on Wednesday but two attempts at administering the lethal injection failed (WBIR-TV via AP)

Christa Pike remained in a hospital where she was on a ventilator and unconscious after her failed execution in Tennessee, her lawyers said in a court filing on Friday.

Hospital staff were working to save Pike’s life and clear the pentobarbital from her system as of late Thursday, the lawyers said.

Pike was given two doses of the drug in a failed attempt to execute her on Wednesday.

In the court filing, Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.

“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body,” they wrote.

They said that instead of “remedying this failure”, they prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.