GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Tennessee halted executions today after officials failed to carry out the lethal injection of death row inmate Christa Pike last night.

AMNA NAWAZ: It was the second time this year that officials in Tennessee botched an execution attempt.

GOV.

BILL LEE (R-TN): It's a tragedy.

And it's deeply disturbing to me that that has happened in this state.

The people deserve better than that.

And we're going to make sure that happens.

GEOFF BENNETT: Her attorneys say she remains alive and in critical condition after the state administered two doses of pentobarbital intended to execute her.

AMNA NAWAZ: A media witness described the scene last night.

CATHERINE SWEENEY, Media Witness, WPLN: They went through two rounds and she was still breathing at the end.

It was very ragged.

She lifted her head up and was looking around at one point.

She said that -- she said that there was a spot that was burning and hurting, and asked if that was normal.

None of it was normal.

I covered all the executions last year and most of the ones this year.

We haven't seen anything like it.

AMNA NAWAZ: The state's Department of Corrections said in a statement it -- quote -- "followed every step of the state's lawful established execution protocol approved by the attorney general's office."

Pike was sentenced to death for the gruesome murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

Pike does not deny committing the murder as an 18-year-old, but her lawyers argued the state should have considered her age, mental illness, and trauma from alleged sexual abuse.

Slemmer's family supported the execution and have called last night's failed attempt -- quote -- "a mess."

For more, we're joined now by Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham School of Law.

Professor, welcome to the "News Hour."

Thanks for joining us.

DEBORAH DENNO, Fordham University Law School: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: As someone who's been following this case, let me just start with your reaction to the news that Christa Pike has survived this failed execution attempt.

DEBORAH DENNO: Well, first of all, I was shocked.

But then, after a moment, I wasn't surprised, given that this had just happened months before in Tennessee.

AMNA NAWAZ: And tell me a little bit, for context here, about how unusual it is to have a botched or a failed execution like this.

What do we know?

DEBORAH DENNO: Well, I have been looking at executions for over 30 years.

And there's a lot -- there's always been a very high failure rate with lethal injection, but it's actually gotten worse.

And one indicator of that are these, what you could call these failed survivors.

These are people who have survived an execution.

Christa Pike is the eighth person who's done that, but no one has been so tormented as she has been.

AMNA NAWAZ: We know that Pike's lawyers say they'd warned that officials that she had a blood condition and it could be difficult to administer the medication.

Should some of that been taken into account?

I mean, was this foreseeable in some way?

DEBORAH DENNO: Absolutely.

This was foreseeable.

And given what her attorneys had described, and perhaps what the potential executioners themselves could see, they should have better prepared or perhaps changed execution methods.

I mean, Christa Pike and her attorneys had asked either that she be executed by the firing squad or by hanging.

And given her medical condition, those methods would have been much more viable.

And this is -- this is how things turn out.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, as we speak now, it's reported that she is in hospital in critical condition.

We know her lawyer is urging the governor to reduce her sentence to life in prison.

What do we know about what could happen next in her case?

DEBORAH DENNO: Well, several things could happen to her.

First of all, the -- she could get life in prison, even though nobody else has gotten that when this sort of failed execution has occurred.

But, again, her case is very different.

No one has suffered to the extent that she has.

Indeed, we don't really know what has actually happened to her.

That's number one.

Number two, if she were re-executed, or attempt, there could be -- simply use a different -- a different kind of method.

I mean, that could happen as well.

Number three, depending on her mental condition, she may not even be viable for another attempt at executing her.

We understand the United States Supreme Court has held that somebody has to be fully aware of the type of punishment they're receiving.

AMNA NAWAZ: We know, as a result of last night's events, the state of Tennessee has now paused executions for the rest of the year.

They have launched an investigation.

As someone who studies this closely, from your perspective, is that enough to address whatever went wrong?

DEBORAH DENNO: I certainly don't think that's at all enough.

This is a method that we have had for 45 years.

It has been consistently problematic from the very first lethal injection execution in 1982 up to this point.

And not only that, it's only gotten worse.

I think one mantra or that's been fueling the use of lethal injections is everybody seeing this as an accident or a one-off.

But over the decades, over and over, we have seen these problems, and Christa Pike's execution attempt has been the worst of all of them.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to underscore here, she's admitted to participating in a brutal murder, and the victim's family supports capital punishment in this case.

But as we reported earlier, her case is unique.

She would have been the first woman in Tennessee executed in over 200 years, and there were those extenuating factors her lawyers argued should have been taken into consideration.

How do you look at that and think about those factors in a capital case?

DEBORAH DENNO: I think those factors are critically important to take into account.

We know that Christa Pike, if she were sentenced today, would never get the death penalty, given her age and the other kinds of conditions she was facing.

Number two, I mean, this is -- no one else even in her years -- who was on of that age, all those people ended up getting life in prison.

So there's just a number of circumstances where she ends up on death row.

She was isolated for so many years that she has received a kind of treatment that nobody else in this country has ever received.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Professor Deborah Denno from Fordham School of Law joining us tonight.

Professor, thank you for your time.

DEBORAH DENNO: Thank you.