Nashville2 doses of pentobarbital failed to kill Christa Pike.
Her lawyers said late Wednesday she was in hospital and they did not know her condition.
Medical experts say the drug likely leaked into tissue around the IV instead of her bloodstream, a failure called infiltration.
The state corrections department says it followed every step of the protocol approved by the attorney general’s office.
The department has not answered questions on whether the pentobarbital degraded or leaked.
How each outlet framed it
- The New York Times
- analyzes likely technical failure: catheter misplacement leaked pentobarbital into tissue rather than bloodstream, or drug degradation prevented fatal concentrations
Sources: The New York Times