After Lethal Dose, Pike Kicked Off Her Sheets

Witnesses expected an execution; instead, they watched Tennessee's death chamber go sideways. The state tried Wednesday night to put to death Christa Pike, 50, its only woman on death row, but she remained alive after two doses of pentobarbital, according to her attorneys. Reporters in the chamber described Pike loudly snoring, complaining that her arm felt like it would "burst open," and kicking wildly so that the sheets covering her fell to the floor, per NBC News. One said her breathing became labored but continued, per the Tennessean. Officials later said she was taken to an off-site medical facility; her condition was unclear.

"It was a mess," May Martinez, the furious mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, who wanted the execution carried out, told NBC, noting the commissioner later told her the execution attempt "didn't work." Pike's lawyers called it another failure by a state that already halted one execution this year over IV problems. Gov. Bill Lee has ordered an outside review and paused the year's remaining execution of Gary Wayne Sutton, which had been scheduled for Dec. 3. The state Corrections Department maintains it "followed every step" of the approved execution protocol, adding that the lethal injection drug "has consistently been effective."