Members of Tennessee's execution team encountered significant difficulties establishing working intravenous lines in Christa Pike's arms before her attempted execution, according to a court document filed by her attorney. The team reportedly used approximately 10 needles and tried several IV sites on both of Pike's arms. According to attorney Randy Spivey, the team struggled even to push saline through the last IV site they managed to establish.
Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital during the state's execution attempt on September 30. She had been sentenced to death for the 1995 stabbing death of Colleen Slemmer, a classmate she tortured and killed with her boyfriend when she was 18 years old. This made her one of the youngest women to receive a death sentence.
Tennessee's state protocol includes administering a second dose of pentobarbital if the initial dose does not result in death, but it does not specify procedures for a situation where an individual survives a second injection. Following the failed execution, Pike was admitted to a hospital and placed on a ventilator for several days. Her attorneys initially did not expect her to survive. She eventually regained consciousness and returned to prison after her discharge from the hospital.
The incident has led to renewed scrutiny regarding the procedures Tennessee employs in carrying out death sentences.