// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
I've seen nearly 500 executions - but never one like Christa Pike's
Reporter Michael Graczyk has covered nearly 500 executions carried out in Texas, continuing even after his 2018 retirement from The Associated Press.
He remembers two instances where needles popped out before reinsertion for successful execution - but never one in which an inmate survived.
That's what happened this week in Tennessee, when 50-year-old inmate Christa Pike remained breathing and audibly snoring after two separate doses of pentobarbital, the barbiturate used in the state's lethal injection protocol.
Graczyk, 76, says he wasn't entirely surprised to hear of the anomaly - and had actually thought about the possibility during his decades-long career as a Texas journalist.
"It seems to me it was just a matter of time," he told BBC News.
Tennessee administered two lethal doses to execute Christa Pike, but she lived
Tennessee's execution protocol calls for a secondary set of pentobarbital-filled syringes in case the person being put to death does not die after the first set, according to AP, but does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.
Governor Bill Lee halted executions in the state after Wednesday night's failure, ordering an independent review into procedures. Botched executions have come under scrutiny over the past decade, since a shortage of the drugs used led some states to change the formula, or procure drugs from more questionable sources. Some states even brought back death by firing squad as an alternative.
The secret hunt for lethal drugs used in US executions
Pike is now in hospital where she is receiving "life-saving care", according to her lawyer.