Christa Pike spent 30 years in jail in Tennessee on death row, waiting for the day the state would kill her. When that day finally came, last week, she was first given a lethal injection, then a second one when the first dose failed. She survived that too and the 50-year-old convicted murderer was taken to hospital where she was placed on life support.
So who was Colleen Slemmer, her teenage victim? What evidence convicted Pike and will this botched execution change attitudes to the death penalty in the US.
Keith Duggan, Washington correspondent has been following the case.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
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