Christa Pike execution chaos as lawyer called 911

Christa Pike execution chaos as lawyer called 911

First responders allegedly didn't believe Christa Pike was still alive following two failed lethal injections, recordings reveal. On September 30, the death row inmate was administered with two doses of pentobarbital. Yet she survived the execution, and was later rushed to hospital for life-saving care.

It has now been revealed the extent of the chaos in the execution chamber, as medical help was delayed following confusion among first responders who allegedly did not believe she was still alive. The records show vital minutes elapsed as officials and responders struggled to verify if a request for emergency help from inside an execution chamber was genuine, The Mirror reports. Pike's lawyer Kelly Gleason had to personally dial 911 at 9.08pm after initial reports from prison were deemed a false alarm.

She said on the call: "My client, Christa Gail Pike, is undergoing a state execution. She has completed the stages of the protocol and last we knew from the attorney who is present, she is still alive and breathing and needs immediate life-saving care." Emergency services were first contacted at 8.40pm, just over an hour after the attempted lethal injection had begun, but the caller was unable to provide a code to verify the legitimacy of the request. The caller, whose name and title has been redacted, had told 911 that they were at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution where an execution had failed, with Pike still alive.

The dispatcher said at 9.03pm: "Per supervisors here at the DEC (Department of Emergency Communications) we have been informed it is a false call. "There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison." Representatives of the prison's Central Control said they "did not make that call" to emergency services, according to a recording at 9.07pm. At the same time, another first responder could be heard ver the radio saying: "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." Then at around 9.11pm, prison officials confirmed to medics it was legitimate and permitted responders through the gates, with Pike taken to hospital. The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications released the batch of audio recordings from dispatchers.

Cops said the first recording of the 911 call was exempt from public disclosure under state law. Pike was then put on a ventilator. Her lawyers said they did not expect her to survive, but she woke up and was discharged from hospital on October 10 and returned to prison.

It remains unclear whether the state will attempt to execute Pike again. The Tennessee Department of Correction has not established what went wrong with the execution, and Governor Bill Lee has paused further executions pending a review. Medics have offered a few possible explanations as to how Pike survived, including potential drug quality issues and the placement of IV lines causing the drug to pool in her tissue.

Pike's attorney told officials that she had a blood disorder that could cause clotting at injection sites. Pike was sentenced to death for the killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. When she was 18, she and her boyfriend tortured and murdered Ms Slemmer.

Pike was then the youngest woman to be sentenced to death the following year.