// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
US murderer Christa Pike unconscious and on ventilator after failed execution, lawyers say
Warning: This article contains details that readers may find distressing
Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator on Thursday night, after authorities failed to execute her by lethal injection, her lawyers say in court filings.
Pike, 50, was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance.
Pike remained critically ill and was being treated at a Nashville-area hospital.
Lawyers for Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, are seeking to have her sentence commuted after the failed execution attempt.
Pike's lawyers filed an emergency motion on Friday to preserve "any and all evidence" related to her botched execution.
Hospital staff are working to save her life and clear the drug used, pentobarbital, from her system, the filing states.
During the execution attempt, prison officials tried to start intravenous (IV) lines by using at least seven needles on Pike, according to her lawyers.
At one point, Pike herself offered guidance of where they could try.
"One needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed," the filing states.