Tennessee tried to execute Christa Pike on Wednesday night, and she didn't die. Executioners gave her both doses of pentobarbital the state's protocol calls for. Witnesses heard her snoring loudly more than 40 minutes after the last dose. An ambulance took her to a hospital, and the state hasn't disclosed her condition. Her death warrant expired at midnight. Late Wednesday, Governor Bill Lee called off the state's one other execution scheduled for this year and ordered an outside review. Pike was 18 when she took part in the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate in Knoxville. This is Tennessee's second failed execution this year.

1. The Family Has Waited 31 Years for This Sentence

Slemmer's family blames the state for botching the execution. The state says it followed its protocol.

Her mother is furious at the state, not just Pike. May Martinez, Slemmer's mother, came to Nashville to watch. "It was a mess," she told NBC News early Thursday. She was blunter about the governor and the attorney general: "They f----- up." She says Pike didn't apologize during the attempt.

The family says three decades was already too long. "It shouldn't have taken 30, 31 years to be able to get this," Morgan Seeley, Slemmer's niece, told WVLT before the attempt. Earlier Wednesday, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's office urged the U.S. Supreme Court to "avoid rewarding Pike's abusive delay tactics." The justices let the execution go ahead at about 5:50 p.m. Central. Three justices dissented.

The prison system says it did everything right. The Department of Correction says it "followed every step" of a protocol the attorney general approved. It says the drug "has consistently been effective."

2. But Opponents Say Tennessee Can't Do This Right

Pike's lawyers and death-penalty opponents say what happened was cruel. They say nothing like it has ever happened before.

Her lawyers say she was in agony. "Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution," her legal team said. Their emergency filing said she was in "unnecessary agony." Their statement pointed to blown veins and degraded pentobarbital. During the attempt, Pike said, "My arm feels like it's about to burst open."

Nobody has ever survived the drugs before. Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called it "singular and unparalleled." Seven other people have survived failed executions when teams couldn't find a vein. None of them had already received the drugs. "Tennessee has shown the world it cannot be trusted to implement capital punishment in a way that preserves human dignity," said Laura Porter, executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

A second try would raise a new legal question. In 1947, the U.S. Supreme Court let Louisiana try again after Willie Francis survived the electric chair. But a Law Commentary legal analysis points out that Tennessee already ran its full protocol on Pike. The prison system itself says the protocol "does not allow for additional procedures."

3. Even Supporters Say Fix the System First

The governor and a bloc of Republican senators back the death penalty but want answers before the next one.

The governor now says the state has to get this right. "The people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective," Lee said. He defended the state this summer. After the failed May attempt to execute Tony Carruthers, Lee said, "It should not affect executions in the future."

Republican senators demanded answers three months ago. In late June, nine Republican state senators, including Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, asked Lee for an independent review and outside drug testing. They warned that "repeated failures of this kind do not advance justice" and hand opponents "their most effective argument." Lee didn't pause executions then. WSMV reports the doctor who oversaw Pike's attempt also worked on Carruthers' failed one.

Witnesses want to know what went wrong. "We have a lot of questions," said John North, a Knoxville media witness who also attended Pike's 1996 trial. "And the Department of Correction has a lot of answers they need to provide the public."

Where This Lands

Slemmer's family has waited 31 years, and they blame the state for the failure. Pike's lawyers and opponents say she suffered, and that no one had ever survived the drugs before. They say the state can't be trusted to try again. The governor and Republican senators still back the death penalty, but they want an outside review. Lee has called off the one execution left this year. Pike is in a hospital, and the state hasn't disclosed her condition. No new execution date is set.

Sources