Tennessee governor halts executions after second botched lethal injection attempt this year – US politics live

Bill Lee pauses state’s remaining executions for the rest of the year after inmate Christa Pike survives two lethal injections

• Tennessee woman on death row taken to hospital after surviving two lethal injections

Christa Pike, convicted of murdering a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, three decades ago, survived Tennessee’s effort to execute her by means of an unprecedented two lethal injections, prison officials said.

This was the state’s first attempted execution of a woman in 200 years. “At one point … she said, ‘my arm feels like it’s about to burst open’,” said Tori Gessner, a news anchor for ABC affiliate WKRN, who witnessed the attempted execution, before adding “then she smiles really big”.