Tennessee tried to execute Christa Pike on Wednesday. She is still alive. Officials administered two doses of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Pike, 50, remained alive — talking, singing, and snoring loudly over more than 90 minutes in the death chamber, according to her attorney Randy Spivey. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital in critical condition, receiving what her lawyers called "lifesaving care."
May Martinez, whose daughter Colleen Slemmer was murdered by Pike in 1995, watched the attempt. "She was awake. She was laughing. She was moving her head, moving her feet," Martinez told the AP. "Didn't work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn't work the second time."
Gov. Bill Lee called what happened "deeply disturbing," ordered a "comprehensive, third-party review," and said the year's remaining scheduled execution will not take place. The corrections department says it followed protocol — though the protocol does not say what happens when an inmate survives both rounds of drugs.
What to watch next: the review's findings — and whether Tennessee rewrites its execution protocol.