It doesn't seem to have gone according to plan, says journalist John North, who was one of the witnesses at the execution site, adding:
For all we know, she was probably alive when we left the building.
Snored loudly
As usual, several journalists were on site as official witnesses to the execution and, according to television reporter Catherine Sweeney, Christa Pike was breathing and snoring loudly "for almost an hour."
It is unclear what went wrong, but an ambulance with blue lights later left the prison area and Christa Pike's lawyers confirm that she was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Christa Pike, 50, would have become the first woman in more than 200 years to be executed in the state of Tennessee. Pike was convicted of the murder of a fellow student in 1995 when she was 18 years old.
Executions are stopped
According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, the rules that govern how an execution should be conducted were followed. If a person survives the first dose, a second dose must be given. However, there are no rules for what happens if a death row inmate survives two doses of pentobarbital.
State Governor Bill Lee will now appoint an independent investigation into what went wrong, he said in a statement. For now, the governor is halting all planned executions in the state this year.
It is the second time this year that the state of Tennessee has failed to execute a death row inmate. In May, an execution was postponed after staff were unable to insert an intravenous needle into the arm of the person who was to be injected with a lethal drug.
Another execution is scheduled to take place in Tennessee this year.
