UPDATE: Christa Pike’s Execution Could Not Be Completed

UPDATE | 10:40 p.m. — The Associated Press is reporting that Tennessee was unable to carry out Christa Pike’s execution by lethal injection tonight.

The development marks an extraordinary turn in a case that had been closely watched across the country.

Earlier, The Tennessean reported that Pike’s attorneys said she was still alive approximately an hour after the lethal injection drugs were administered.

Tennessee’s execution protocol provides for a backup set of syringes if an inmate is not deceased after the first set has been administered.

According to the protocol, the initial set contains saline, pentobarbital and additional saline syringes.

After the first set is administered, officials are required to wait five minutes before the witness blinds are closed and the physician enters the chamber to check the inmate.

If the inmate is determined not to be deceased, the protocol allows officials to prepare a second set of syringes.

The protocol, however, does not appear to specify what happens if the backup set also fails to result in death.

That detail has now taken on new significance following tonight’s failed execution attempt.

Pike’s attorneys have been seeking emergency legal intervention as the situation unfolded.

The immediate questions now concern Pike’s medical condition, exactly what occurred inside the execution chamber, and what procedures officials followed after the first attempt did not result in death.

The legal consequences could also be significant.

Tennessee still holds Pike under a death sentence, but the state was unable to complete the execution scheduled for tonight.

More information is expected as officials, attorneys and courts respond to the unprecedented development.

For now, the execution has ended without Pike’s death—and a new chapter in the long-running legal battle is beginning.