Tennessee court filing reveals 10-needle struggle before Pike execution

A court filing submitted on Thursday provides the most detailed account yet of the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee. The document, written by her attorney Randy Spivey, states that the execution team used approximately 10 needles to locate veins in Pike’s arms before injecting the lethal drug.

Spivey wrote that the team struggled to establish working intravenous lines at the execution chamber on Sept. 30. The team began attempting to place the two required IVs at 6:34 p.m. An IV was successfully placed in Pike’s right arm within six minutes. Accessing a vein in her left arm took nearly an hour.

During the delay, Pike suggested the team look in her upper arm for a usable vein. Spivey noted that Pike was wincing and grimacing as members moved needles around in her left arm. At 6:57 p.m., one team member stated a vein might be blowing, while two others could not determine if it was compromised. A later needle appeared severely bent upon removal.

At 7:07 p.m., a team member said, I think it's blown. The group decided at 7:13 p.m. that an IV was successfully placed in her left arm. Phone calls to the execution chamber began about five minutes later. 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 told a spiritual adviser, I feel like my arm is about to bust. It burns. About 10 minutes later, she began making an agitated snoring sound. Over the next 30 minutes, Spivey observed Pike straining, flinching, and appearing to struggle to breathe.

Spivey requested a phone to call colleagues but was taken on a seven-minute route through the facility instead. At 8:22 p.m., he called other attorneys to stop the execution, noting that a third dose is not authorized under state protocol. He informed the deputy attorney general that Pike needed immediate medical care. An ambulance arrived at the hospital at 9:14 p.m.

Pike, 50, was convicted in 1995 for the stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. She is one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death in the United States. Tennessee’s protocol calls for a second dose of pentobarbital if the first does not cause death, but it does not specify procedures if a person survives the second injection. Kit Thomas, an attorney representing death row inmates challenging the state’s procedures, said the filing confirms predictions about botched executions.