Execution team reported Pike's veins blew

Ten needles were used as a medical team struggled to find working veins in the arms of Christa Pike during her September execution attempt. The count, cited in a court filing this week, details the physical difficulty staff faced before administering the first dose of pentobarbital. The document provides the most granular timeline yet of the event that left the 50 year old inmate hospitalized.

Randy Spivey, Pike's attorney, submitted the filing in a separate legal challenge to Tennessee's lethal injection protocols. He wrote that the team began placing the two required IV lines at 6:34 p.m. on September 30. An IV was successfully set in Pike's right arm within six minutes. The left arm took nearly an hour. Spivey noted that Pike assisted the process by suggesting the team look in her upper arm for a usable vein.

The filing describes a period of visible distress as staff moved needles in Pike's left arm. Spivey wrote that she was wincing and grimacing while team members voiced doubts about their progress. At 6:57 p.m., one member stated a vein might be blowing, though two others could not confirm. A later needle appeared severely bent when removed. By 7:07 p.m., a team member said, "I think it's blown." The group decided at 7:13 p.m. that the IV was successfully placed.

Phone calls to the execution chamber began approximately five minutes after the IV placement. Spivey reported that team members pushing the drug from an adjoining room frequently asked the IV team to check Pike's left arm. It is unclear when the pentobarbital entered the lines. At 7:34 p.m., Pike said, "I feel like my arm is about to bust. It burns." She continued speaking with a spiritual adviser for about 10 minutes before making an agitated snoring sound.

Over the next 30 minutes, Pike strained, flinched, and moved her head. Spivey said she appeared to struggle to breathe. When he requested a phone to contact colleagues, he was taken on a seven minute route through the facility instead of using the device in the witness room. At 8:22 p.m., he called other attorneys to stop the execution, noting that a third dose is not authorized. He then told the deputy attorney general that Pike needed immediate medical care.

Spivey was told at 8:50 p.m. that an ambulance was en route. Twenty minutes later, he was informed that medical staff were performing life saving measures. An ambulance arrived at the hospital at 9:14 p.m. Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital and was placed on a ventilator for several days. Her attorneys did not expect her to live at one point. She has since regained consciousness and returned to prison.

Pike was convicted in the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 at the time of the crime, which she committed with her boyfriend. The case made her one of the youngest women sentenced to death. Tennessee's protocol calls for a second dose of pentobarbital if the first does not cause death. The protocol does not specify what should happen if a person survives the second injection. Kit Thomas, an attorney representing death row inmates in the related procedural challenge, said the filing confirmed predictions about botched executions.

Thomas stated that the likelihood of botched executions has materialized and will continue without substantial change. The filing highlights the mechanical failures and communication gaps during the September 30 procedure. It serves as a key exhibit in the ongoing dispute over the state's execution methods. The court documents detail the specific times and actions taken by the medical team from the initial needle insertion to the ambulance arrival.