The state correction department added that Pike had been taken to an off-site medical facility. One of her lawyers said on Wednesday night she was "being provided life-saving measures" in hospital.
On Thursday, lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters: " We don't have a sense of her prognosis or much update on her health at the moment." He added: " But we do know that that she is alive right now."
In his emailed comments to the BBC, Zivot said: " It's very possible that as a consequence of the delay of the beginning of resuscitation she will have a brain injury." A third-party review has been ordered by state Governor Bill Lee, who said on Thursday that Tennessee will halt executions for the rest of the year.
This could impact any additional attempt by the state to execute Pike in the near-term, if she does regain consciousness. Her current state is not clear.
Historically, the US Supreme Court has not halted second attempts at executions, said John Mills, an attorney who works with inmates sentenced to death. In 2024, it allowed the state of Alabama to proceed with a second execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, after their attempt to execute him by lethal injection failed two years before.
Alabama used an experimental oxygen deprivation method to put Smith to death. A notable Supreme Court case from 1947 allowed the state of Louisiana to attempt a second electrocution of Willie Smith, a black teenager whose first execution attempt failed when he was 17 years old.
The court found a second execution would not violate the Constitution's prohibitions against double jeopardy or cruel and unusual punishment, and Smith was executed aged 18." If the question is, is it likely the federal courts would intervene in a second attempt?
I'm afraid the answer is a resounding no," Mills said of Pike's case. Pike's lawyers have already filed a motion to stay her execution.
Mills added that he would also approach Governor Lee, who has powers to issue stays of executions and exercise clemency. Opponents of the death penalty have been quick to react.
Maya Foa, the chief executive of international legal organisation Reprieve, said: " We cannot know exactly what went wrong, because so much happened behind a curtain – lethal injection relies on secrecy at every stage, to hide the violence of the state taking a human life." Authorities are yet to say whether they will try again to execute Pike.
