At about 20:00 local time on Wednesday, Tennessee’s Riverbend Maximum Security Institution attempted to execute death‑row inmate Christa Pike, but two syringes of the barbiturate pentobarbital did not cause death.

Pike, 50, remained alive, unconscious yet breathing, and was heard snoring, according to her attorneys who filed an emergency motion while the execution was still in progress.

Following the motion, Pike was transferred to a hospital where her legal team said she received life‑saving medical care.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a comprehensive third‑party review of the incident and confirmed that the state’s final scheduled execution for the year would not proceed as originally planned.

The state’s execution protocol includes a secondary set of drug syringes if the first set fails, but it does not address a scenario where the inmate survives both doses.

Pike was convicted in 1996 for the murder of 19‑year‑old Colleen Slemmer, a killing she carried out with her then‑boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp when she was 18.

The execution had been the subject of extensive legal battles, culminating in a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed the lethal injection to proceed.

During the failed execution, the curtain separating the execution chamber from the witness room was drawn twice, and media representatives were asked to leave the facility at one point.

May Martinez, mother of the victim, described the incident as “a mess” in comments to NBC News.