Tennessee police were initially baffled after prison officials reported that Christa Pike had survived an attempted execution last month. One dispatcher even suspected the call was a hoax.
Pike, 50, was given two doses of pentobarbital on September 30 as Tennessee officials sought to carry out her execution for the 1995 stabbing death of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer. But she was still breathing after the lethal injection.
Newly released police dispatch transcripts reveal the confusion that followed, as prison personnel and emergency responders struggled to determine whether the report of the botched execution was genuine.
The records show that the first 911 call was received at 8.40pm, about an hour after the lethal injection began.
“We’ve been carrying out an execution tonight. We’ve administered 10 grams of pentobarbital. The person is not yet deceased,” the caller said while requesting an ambulance.
The dispatcher asked the caller for a verification code used by agencies to confirm that an emergency report is legitimate rather than a false alarm. The caller did not have one.
At 8.59pm, the dispatcher contacted Tennessee Department of Correction Central Control to establish whether the call was authentic.
“We are trying to find out if that is an actual thing that is happening and we need to send an ambulance,” she said, “or if this is someone that is basically prank-calling.”
The dispatcher was told that no one from the department had contacted police about a failed execution. At 9.03pm, she concluded: “We have been informed it is a false call” and “there is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.”
Christa Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital during the state’s attempt to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer
Emergency responders were photographed rushing to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the botched execution on September 30
However, at 9.06pm—26 minutes after the initial call—the Department of Correction called back and provided the required code.
The information still had not reached the prison entrance. A first responder reported: “Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.”
At 9.11pm, a police dispatcher called the Tennessee Highway Patrol and asked for a trooper to be sent to the prison so emergency vehicles could pass through the gates.
“We need to send police hot because there is someone at the gate telling them this is real and they need to enter, but they can’t enter without police because we never got the codes,” the dispatcher said. “Can you send a trooper out there?”
“And just so you guys are aware, the defense attorney by the name of Kelly Cleason is calling us and asking about an update. So it’s escalating.”
Ambulances and police vehicles were photographed outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution minutes later. Records show that Pike was taken to a local hospital at 9.36pm.
She remained on a ventilator for several days, and her attorneys at one stage did not believe she would survive.
Her lawyers said Pike regained consciousness last Tuesday, began speaking in a limited way and was able to walk with assistance. She was discharged from the hospital and returned on Saturday to the women’s prison where she had been held for 30 years.
Pike was sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of her classmate. She is pictured receiving her sentence in 1996
Pike was on Tennessee’s death row for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer
Pike was assisted by her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and their classmate Shadolla Peterson (right) in Slemmer’s beating and murder
‘She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances. She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery,’ they said.
The failed execution has put death sentences in the state under a microscope. Governor Bill Lee postponed another execution this year and the state’s prison chief resigned following Pike’s hospitalization.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered the state to preserve all evidence from her failed execution.
Judge I’Ashea Myles said: ‘This case is unique to say the least.’
‘Take special care not to lose, misplace, or accidentally delete any information pertinent to this investigation.’
Assistant Attorney General John Ayers then claimed there is no pending execution order for Pike and insisted that the Department of Correction has already preserved the evidence from Pike’s attempted execution.
He added that log books, observation logs, medical waste and products, and electrocardiogram readouts have been saved.
‘It’s my understanding that the IV lines were cut, and so there may be portions of those IV lines that could have been still attached to Ms Pike when she was transported to the hospital,’ Ayers said.
Medical and lethal injection experts have also focused on the possibility that a problem with the IV line caused the drug to pool in her tissue rather than entering her bloodstream.
Pike (pictured in 2007) has been discharged from the hospital and is back in prison
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat and killed 19-year-old Slemmer at a job training camp.
Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area, cut her with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt.
Shipp then carved a pentagram into the victim’s body. He was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.
It’s unclear how state officials will proceed with her case. Pike’s attorneys have argued she has suffered enough and want the governor to commute her sentence.
