Tennessee prison chief to resign after Christa Pike's failed execution

Pike is being treated at a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, where doctors are attempting to clear the drugs used during the execution from her body, according to legal filings. She was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance. While receiving the two doses, "she could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure", her lawyers said.As of Thursday night, she was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator. The state's Department of Correction has defended the method it used, saying "the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out".Authorities have not yet said whether they will try again to execute Pike. They have also not offered an explanation for what went wrong. Her lawyers filed an emergency motion on Friday to preserve "any and all evidence" related to her failed execution.Pike's attorneys previously warned that her medical history and anatomy - including thrombocytosis (a blood-clotting condition) and small veins - meant there was a risk she would experience "unnecessary" pain and suffering during a lethal injection.The attempted execution went ahead after multiple failed, last-minute legal challenges by Pike's lawyers.The US Supreme Court rejected two separate efforts to stop the lethal injection.