Disturbing details of Christa Pike's failed execution revealed in new court filings

The Tennessee execution team members tasked with putting working IV lines in Christa Pike’s arms warned that some of her veins had likely "blown" before she was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital. 

The disturbing new details of Pike’s botched execution were revealed in new court documents filed by Pike’s attorney this week. 

Pike’s IV team went through 10 needles

Timeline:

The IV team went through about 10 needles and tried several IV sites on both arms for nearly an hour leading up to the injections, attorney Randy Spivey wrote. Team members struggled to push saline through the last IV site. When they struggled, Pike helped, advising them to look in her upper arm for a viable vein.

Pike was "wincing and grimacing" as the IV team members moved the needles around inside her left arm, Spivey wrote, with team members repeatedly expressing doubts. 

At 6:57 p.m., more than 20 minutes after they started trying to insert the needles, one team member said a vein "might be blowing."

After the team tried again with a different spot in her left arm, the needle appeared to be severely bent when they pulled it out, Pike’s attorney said. 

"I think it’s blown," one of the IV team members reportedly said at 7:07 p.m. After more attempts, the team decided at 7:13 p.m. that they had successfully placed an IV in Pike’s left arm, and they taped her hands down and hooked her up to a heart monitor.

It’s not clear exactly when the pentobarbital was pushed into the IV lines, but at 7:34 p.m., Pike said her arm was hurting.

"I feel like my arm is about to bust. It burns," she said, according to her attorney. About 10 minutes later, she started making an "agitated snoring sound." 

Pike strained, flinched, moved her head and seemed to struggle to breathe for the next 30 minutes. Spivey said he asked to use a phone, but he wasn’t allowed to use the phone in the execution witness room. Instead, he had to take a seven-minute walk through the facility to use another phone. 

Spivey called fellow attorneys at 8:22 p.m. and asked them to stop the execution because a third dose of pentobarbital isn’t authorized under the state’s protocol. He then went back to the witness room and told the deputy attorney general that Pike needed immediate medical care.

Spivey was told an ambulance was on the way at 8:50 p.m., and 20 minutes later he was told that medical staff were providing life-saving measures, he wrote. An ambulance was seen arriving at the hospital at 9:14 p.m.

What happened to Christa Pike? 

The backstory:

Pike, 50, was 18 years old when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a jealous rage in 1995. Before her failed execution last week, she was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. 

MORE: Christa Pike latest: Tennessee prisons chief resigns after failed execution

A federal appeals court briefly paused the execution on Sept. 30 and said more time was needed to consider her lawyers’ last-ditch appeals, but the Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed after a nine-hour delay.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, declined to intervene and allow Pike to serve a life sentence.

After the state administered two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital, witnesses said Pike was still alive and snoring. State protocol calls for a second dose of pentobarbital if the first doesn’t result in death, but it doesn’t spell out what to do if a person survives the second injection.

Pike was taken to a hospital, where she remained unconscious and on life support for several days. Before she woke up, doctors believed Pike was likely brain-dead and would be taken off life support soon.

Big picture view:

The failed execution has brought renewed scrutiny to how Tennessee carries out death sentences. 

What they're saying:

"Our predictions about the likelihood of botched executions have come true — and will continue to come true — without substantial change," Kit Thomas, an attorney representing people on death row in Tennessee, told The Associated Press. 

Will the state try to execute Christa Pike again? 

What's next:

Pike has been returned to prison, and it remains unclear whether Tennessee will try to execute her again. Lee has called off executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year and ordered a "comprehensive" review of what happened to Pike.

Crime & Public SafetyTennessee