Members of Tennessee’s execution team repeatedly failed to establish functioning IV lines in Christa Pike’s arms during her attempted execution, with some warning that veins may have ruptured, or “blown,” before the lethal injection was administered, her attorney said in a court filing Thursday.
The medical team used roughly 10 needles and attempted multiple insertion sites on both arms, attorney Randy Spivey wrote. Even after securing the final IV, the team had difficulty flushing it with saline, according to the filing, which offers the most detailed description yet of the execution attempt.
Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital during the state’s Sept. 30 attempt to execute her for the 1995 stabbing death of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 when she tortured and killed Slemmer alongside her boyfriend, making her one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death.
Tennessee’s execution protocol requires officials to administer a second dose of pentobarbital if the first fails to kill the prisoner. The rules, however, do not explain how officials should respond if the second injection also fails.
After the botched execution, Pike spent several days on a ventilator in a hospital. Her attorneys at one point feared she would not survive, but she eventually regained consciousness and was returned to prison after her discharge.
The failed execution has intensified scrutiny of Tennessee’s death-penalty procedures. Spivey’s filing was submitted in a separate case in which death-row prisoners are challenging the state’s lethal-injection protocol.
“Our predictions about the likelihood of botched executions have come true — and will continue to come true — without substantial change,” said Kit Thomas, an attorney representing death-row prisoners in that case.
Nearly an hour of IV attempts
According to Spivey, the execution team began attempting to place the two IV lines required under Tennessee’s protocol at 6:34 p.m. When the team encountered difficulty, Pike tried to help by suggesting they search for a usable vein in her upper arm.
An IV was successfully placed in Pike’s right arm in about six minutes. Establishing a second line in her left arm took nearly an hour.
Pike was “wincing and grimacing” as team members moved needles inside her left arm, Spivey wrote. The medical personnel repeatedly voiced uncertainty after inserting the needles.
At 6:57 p.m., one team member said a vein in Pike’s left arm “might be blowing,” while two others said they could not determine whether that had happened. One member reportedly said something like, “it’s either blood or blown, I need to know,” according to Spivey.
The team moved to another location on Pike’s left arm, where the needle appeared badly bent when it was removed. At 7:07 p.m., Spivey recalled one team member saying, “I think it’s blown.” After additional attempts, the team concluded at 7:13 p.m. that the left-arm IV was working. Pike’s hands were taped down, and she was connected to a heart monitor.
Pike complained of burning arm pain
About five minutes later, a series of calls began between the execution chamber and another room where team members were responsible for pushing pentobarbital through the IV lines. Spivey said the calls appeared to involve repeated requests for personnel to recheck Pike’s left arm.
The precise time the pentobarbital entered the IV lines remains unclear. At 7:34 p.m., however, Pike told those present that her arm was hurting.
“I feel like my arm is about to bust. It burns,” Pike said, according to her attorney. She continued speaking with her spiritual adviser for about 10 minutes before beginning to make what Spivey described as an “agitated snoring sound.”
For the next 30 minutes, Pike strained, flinched, moved her head and appeared to have difficulty breathing, Spivey wrote. When he asked to use a telephone, he was taken on a seven-minute route through the facility rather than being permitted to use the phone inside the execution witness room.
At 8:22 p.m., Spivey called fellow attorneys and urged them to halt the execution, noting that Tennessee’s protocol does not authorize a third dose of pentobarbital. He then returned to the witness room and told the deputy attorney general that Pike required emergency medical treatment.
Spivey said he was informed at 8:50 p.m. that an ambulance was on its way. Twenty minutes later, he was told medical personnel were performing life-saving measures. An ambulance was observed arriving at the hospital at 9:14 p.m., according to the filing.
