Tennessee Court Filing Details Ten Needle Attempts in Failed Execution of Christa Pike

Randy Spivey, the attorney for Christa Pike, submitted a court document on Thursday detailing the medical complications during the state's failed attempt to execute her client on September 30. The filing provides a minute-by-minute account of the execution team's difficulties in establishing intravenous lines before administering the first dose of pentobarbital. Spivey stated that the team used approximately 10 needles and tried multiple sites on both of Pike's arms. He noted that the team still encountered trouble pushing saline through the final IV site they established.

The timeline in the filing shows the team began placing the two required IVs at 6:34 p.m. An IV was set in Pike's right arm in about six minutes, but the left arm took nearly an hour to complete. During this period, Pike suggested the team look in her upper arm for a usable vein. Spivey wrote that she was wincing and grimacing as needles were moved, and that team members frequently voiced doubts about their progress. At 6:57 p.m., one member said a vein might be blowing, though two others could not confirm it. A later needle appeared severely bent upon removal. At 7:07 p.m., a team member stated, I think it's blown. The team declared the left arm IV successful at 7:13 p.m.

Phone calls to the execution chamber began about five minutes after the IV placement. Spivey reported that team members pushing the drug from an adjoining room repeatedly asked the IV team to check Pike's left arm. It is unclear exactly when the pentobarbital entered the lines. At 7:34 p.m., Pike said, I feel like my arm is about to bust. It burns. About 10 minutes later, after speaking with her spiritual adviser, she began making an agitated snoring sound. Over the next 30 minutes, Pike strained, flinched, moved her head, and appeared to struggle to breathe, according to Spivey.

Pike, 50, was convicted in the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 at the time of the crime and became one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death in Tennessee. The state's protocol calls for a second dose of pentobarbital if the first does not cause death. However, the protocol does not specify what should happen if a person survives the second injection. After the attempt, Pike was placed on a ventilator for several days. At one point, her attorneys did not expect her to live. She has since regained consciousness and returned to prison after being discharged from the hospital.

Spivey was taken on a seven-minute route through the facility to use a phone after he was denied access to the phone in the witness room. At 8:22 p.m., he called fellow attorneys to ask them to stop the execution, noting that a third dose is not authorized. He told the deputy attorney general that Pike needed immediate medical care. At 8:50 p.m., Spivey was told an ambulance was on the way. About 20 minutes later, he was informed that medical staff were performing life-saving measures. An ambulance arrived at the hospital at 9:14 p.m.

The filing was submitted in a separate case where death row inmates are challenging Tennessee's lethal injection procedures. Kit Thomas, an attorney representing those inmates, said the event confirmed predictions about the likelihood of botched executions. He stated that such outcomes will continue without substantial change to the state's methods. The document offers the most detailed public description yet of the medical team's actions during the failed procedure.