“It's been going on for about an hour.”
On the evening of September 30, Christy Pike was to be executed at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. According to published transcripts and recordings of emergency calls, after administering 10 grams of pentobarbital - a substance used to carry out death sentences - it turned out that Pike was still alive.
At 8:40 p.m. local time, the Metro Nashville Emergency Center received a dramatic call. We carried out an execution today. We administered 10 grams of pentobarbital. The person has not died. This has been going on for about an hour now. We need an ambulance, said one of the prison employees. The dispatcher tried to obtain a code confirming the authenticity of the report, but the caller was unable to provide it. How come they don't have the code? – the dispatcher's voice can be heard on the recording.
"Christa Needs Immediate Help"
More calls poured into the emergency center. Dispatchers tried to confirm whether a botched execution had actually occurred. At approximately 9 p.m., one of the women at the rescue center contacted the Tennessee Department of Corrections Central Control in an attempt to verify the report. We have paramedics on standby. We're just trying to confirm, she said. However, the person on the other end assured that no one from their facility had called.
The next minutes passed with uncertainty. At 9:08 p.m., Kelly Gleason, Christa Pike's attorney, called the dispatch room. There was desperation and determination in her voice. Christa is still alive and breathing, she needs immediate life-saving help, she said. Gleason reported that her client was unconscious and breathing with difficulty.
Paramedics were not allowed to enter the prison
The situation was further complicated by the fact that paramedics could not enter the prison without the presence of a state police officer. At 9:11 p.m., an emergency response center employee contacted the Tennessee Highway Patrol dispatch center requesting that the patrol be dispatched to the scene to allow a rescue team to enter the prison. We were told at the gate that they needed an ambulance and it was really happening, it wasn't a joke or a false report, the dispatcher reported.
The transcripts of the conversations show that Christa Pike was not breathing normally - her breathing was "very labored and slow." When asked about chest pain, the caller was unable to answer because Pike was unconscious.
Ultimately, the woman was taken to the hospital and connected to a ventilator. According to her lawyers, Pike did not regain consciousness until almost a week later. She was released from the hospital and taken back to prison.
"A case without precedent in modern history"
Christa Pike was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Her case went down in history as the first documented case of a convict surviving a lethal dose of drugs during execution. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, "this is the worst case of botched execution we have ever seen - without precedent in modern history."
Pike's lawyers have previously warned that the drugs used could cause great suffering. After the execution, the woman had burns on her arms and cognitive problems.
After the botched execution, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee ordered a temporary halt to all scheduled executions in the state. Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada has resigned. The governor tapped former federal prosecutor Ed Stanton to conduct an independent audit of Tennessee's enforcement procedures. The aim is to determine whether the protocols have been maintained and whether changes are necessary to ensure the legality and effectiveness of future executions.
