WOMAN ON DEATH ROW SURVIVES EXECUTION ATTEMPT

NASHVILLE, OCTOBER 1 /SRNA-Reuters/ – Christa Pike, sentenced to death for the murder of a schoolmate more than three decades ago, survived an attempt to execute her by lethal injection in Tennessee, officials at Nashville's Riverbend prison said.

Pike's condition following the failed execution attempt was not immediately known, nor was it clear what legal steps her lawyers or the state might take after she was taken from the maximum-security prison for medical treatment.

The Tennessee Department of Correction defended the way the closely watched execution was carried out. Human rights experts had opposed Pike's execution, citing her age at the time of the crime, her history as a victim of childhood sexual abuse and untreated mental illness.

The failed execution attempt came several hours after the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that had halted the execution at the last minute, clearing the way for Pike, 50, to be put to death for her role in the torture and fatal beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995.

Pike was 18 at the time of the crime.