Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike remains in critical condition after the state failed to execute her by lethal injection, with new witness accounts describing unusual moments inside the execution chamber.

Pike, 50, was taken to a hospital after officials administered two doses of pentobarbital during the September 30 execution attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Her lawyers said she remained alive and was receiving life-saving medical treatment.

According to journalist William Puckett, who witnessed the procedure, Pike laughed after the drugs were administered and sang a Buddhist meditation chant before eventually appearing to fall asleep. Other witnesses reported that she continued breathing, snoring and moving during the prolonged procedure, prompting officials to abandon the execution.

Pike had been scheduled for execution over the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she attacked with her then-boyfriend when Pike was 18. The case drew national attention because Pike was set to become Tennessee’s first woman executed in more than two centuries.

The failed execution has now triggered a wider review of Tennessee’s execution procedures. Governor Bill Lee ordered a third-party investigation and suspended all executions in the state for the remainder of 2026. The decision followed another failed execution attempt in Tennessee earlier this year.

The Tennessee Department of Correction, however, said its officials followed the state’s approved execution protocol and that the pentobarbital used in the procedure had consistently been effective. The circumstances surrounding why the procedure failed remain under investigation.