Tennessee corrections officers stuck needles into a death row inmate's arms about 10 times while trying to establish intravenous lines during a failed execution, according to her lawyers. The inmate, Christa Pike, 50, survived two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital.
Randy Spivey, an attorney for Pike, said it took corrections staff about an hour to secure IV lines in both arms, the Associated Press reported on the 22nd. The execution took place on the 30th of last month at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Staff found a vein in her right arm within six minutes but struggled with the left arm, inserting needles at multiple sites.
The legal team said about 10 needles were used across both arms, with Spivey counting at least seven in the left arm alone. Pike grimaced and said she was in pain. Officials examining her left arm said the vein "may have blown," raising doubts about whether a usable line had been established. One needle pulled from another site was bent. Staff eventually concluded they had secured a vein in the left arm and proceeded with the execution.
As the drugs began flowing, Pike said her arm felt like it was going to burst and that it was burning. Her representatives said her right arm turned purple after the second dose and that blisters and burns formed at the injection site. Pike could be heard snoring for nearly 30 minutes after the second dose. She was taken to a hospital, and about a week later, on the 6th of this month, her lawyers said she was conscious, speaking and receiving treatment.
Tennessee protocol calls for a second dose if the first does not cause death, but it sets out no further steps if the second dose also fails. The corrections department says it followed all execution procedures approved by the attorney general's office. Pike's lawyers called the execution torture and requested clemency. They also said they had notified the court months earlier of health problems that made it difficult to access her veins.
Governor Bill Lee halted the remaining executions scheduled for this year and ordered an independent review. In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers in Tennessee was also called off after staff failed for more than an hour to establish a backup IV line.
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19, a fellow participant in the Job Corps vocational training program. Pike was 18 at the time and carried out the killing with her boyfriend. Had the execution been completed, she would have been the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.