Gov. Bill Lee halted Tennessee executions on Thursday and included Christa Pike in the pause after she survived two doses of pentobarbital during a Wednesday execution attempt.
Nearly 1 hour after the injections, Pike was still conscious, breathing and snoring before being taken to a hospital; her condition and the cause of the failure were still unclear.
Lee also delayed a December execution and ordered an independent review, even as he said the Department of Correction appeared to have followed existing protocol.
The breakdown was Tennessee’s second botched execution this year and the second statewide pause in 5 years, after Lee ordered a 2022 review over untested lethal-injection drugs.