Tennessee officials gave Christa Gail Pike two doses of the sedative pentobarbital Wednesday night but did not kill her, and she was taken by ambulance from the prison to a hospital, her attorneys said, according to the Associated Press. They said she was being treated but that they had not been told her condition. Pike, 50, had been sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, 19, a classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville.

Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement that he had ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” and that the state’s remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year, the AP reported. “Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State's most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” Lee said. Lee had denied Pike clemency on Monday.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said it “followed every step of the State's lawful, established execution protocol,” which it said had been signed off by the Attorney General's Office, according to the AP. Department spokesperson Dorinda Carter told the Tennessean, as quoted by the BBC (opens in new tab): “The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening.” The AP reported that the protocol calls for a second set of syringes “if the inmate is not deceased” after the first, and does not say what happens if the person is still alive after the second.

According to media witnesses cited by the AP, the curtains to the execution chamber opened at 7:27 p.m. CT, and Pike said in her final statement: “I'm going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life and that is in love.” Tori Gessner of WKRN, one of the media witnesses, said Pike was heard saying at 7:34 p.m.: “My arm feels like it's about to burst open,” NBC News (opens in new tab) reported. Witnesses reported that a second dose had been given by 8:26 p.m., and Pike could still be heard snoring until the microphone was cut off at 8:53 p.m., the AP reported. “Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all,” Gessner said at a news conference, according to NBC News (opens in new tab).

Pike’s lawyers filed emergency motions saying she was suffering “unnecessary agony,” according to the AP. Their filing said, as quoted by the BBC (opens in new tab): “Ms Pike has lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring.” NBC News (opens in new tab) quoted the same filing differently, as saying Pike “has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat.” Her defense team said in a statement to the Tennessean, as quoted by the BBC (opens in new tab): “Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution.” Dr. Joel Zivot, who was retained by the defense, told the BBC (opens in new tab): “It's very possible that as a consequence of the delay of the beginning of resuscitation she will have a brain injury.”

Robin M. Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center called the outcome “singular and unparalleled,” the AP reported. She said seven other people had survived execution attempts after officials failed to access a vein, but none had survived after receiving the drugs. Austin Sarat told NBC News (opens in new tab) that there have been fewer than 10 true failed executions in the past 80 years and called the situation “uncharted territory.”

Wednesday’s attempt began hours later than planned. According to the AP, a federal appeals court panel voted 2-1 to stay the execution about an hour before its 10 a.m. start, and the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the stay later in the day. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, according to NBC News (opens in new tab), which reported that Sotomayor saw no reason to cut short the ordinary appeals process, “particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision.”

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, said: “It was a mess.” She spoke to NBC News (opens in new tab), which reported that she was furious with state officials. This is the second time this year that Tennessee has been unable to complete an execution. In May, the state called off the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers after executioners tried for more than an hour and failed to place an IV, according to the AP. Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years, the AP and LiveNOW from FOX (opens in new tab) reported.