Christa Pike back in prison as 911 calls reveal delayed help

Christa Pike back in prison after failed lethal injection as 911 calls reveal delayed help

Christa Pike, a 50-year-old death row inmate in Tennessee, has been discharged from hospital and returned to the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Centre after surviving two attempts to execute her by lethal injection. Her lawyers say she is conscious and speaking, with severe injuries to her arms, and is continuing to receive medical care in prison. She is believed to be the first person in the United States to survive a full lethal injection attempt, though some legal experts have disputed that description.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The killing took place in 1995, when Pike was 18. She and her then boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and murdered Slemmer, a fellow student they had met at a job training camp for troubled teenagers. A satanic symbol was carved into the victim's chest, and Pike kept part of her skull as a souvenir. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life without parole. Pike, who was a few months older, was sentenced to death. She spent nearly three decades on death row as the only woman under a death sentence in Tennessee. She would have been the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years.

Her case drew international attention. Supporters said Pike was a victim of severe childhood sexual and physical abuse, and that this trauma was not properly considered at her trial. The US Supreme Court rejected a last-minute attempt to stop the execution, and Tennessee's governor, Bill Lee, denied clemency. A lower court issued a stay shortly before the execution was due to begin, but the Supreme Court vacated it, allowing the state to proceed. The execution began about eight and a half hours after it was originally scheduled.

At Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, the drug Tennessee uses for lethal injections. The first dose did not kill Pike. A second dose was given, but witnesses said she remained alive. Media witnesses described her as awake and speaking during the process. At one point she said her arm felt as if it was about to burst open. She complained of a burning spot on her arm and asked whether that was normal. Witnesses said she smiled, moaned, snored and continued breathing loudly for almost an hour after the second dose. The curtain was closed at 7:46pm and again at 8:05pm, when she was still breathing. Journalists were later ordered to leave, and emergency vehicles arrived at the prison.

Pike was taken to hospital, where she received life-saving treatment. Her lawyers said her condition was critical and that it was unclear whether she had suffered brain damage. She was later described as unconscious and intubated on a ventilator. On Monday night, her legal team believed she was brain dead and that life support would be withdrawn. On Tuesday, she woke up and began speaking. Her first words were reported as: 'Where am I and who are you?' Her lawyers said she was angry and confused, and that her recovery was medically unprecedented. They said she had a blood clot in one arm, pneumonia, severe swelling in both arms and hands, could not move either arm, could not swallow and had not eaten. She remained handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed. Later reports said she was up and walking, and she was eventually discharged from hospital and returned to the rehabilitation centre where she had been held.

Newly released emergency calls revealed confusion and delay in getting Pike medical help. The first 911 call was made at about 8:40pm, just over an hour after the attempted lethal injection began. The caller said the execution had been carried out and the person was not yet deceased. Dispatchers were unsure whether the call was genuine, with one saying they were trying to find out if it was a real emergency or someone 'prank calling or like swatting us.' More than 20 minutes later, dispatchers were told it was a false alarm. Prison officials told a caller: 'I'm being told that nobody from our facility called you.' Pike's lawyer then called 911 to demand immediate life-saving care. Around 9:11pm, prison officials confirmed the emergency was real and allowed responders through the gates. Pike was taken to hospital almost an hour after the first call for an ambulance.

The failed execution has prompted a wider review. Governor Bill Lee paused all executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year and ordered an independent investigation. The head of the state's prison service, Frank Strada, resigned. The Department of Correction said it had followed the state's established protocol, and that the protocol did not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out. It was the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, after Tony Carruthers's execution was halted in May when medical staff could not find a vein. Another execution scheduled for December, that of Gary Wayne Sutton, has been put on hold.

Pike's lawyers have asked Governor Lee to commute her death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. They have also filed an emergency motion to preserve all evidence from the botched execution, including syringes, tubing, paperwork, communications, surveillance video and any recordings. A judge ordered Tennessee to preserve that evidence. Her legal team may later argue that a further execution attempt would breach the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and that double jeopardy applies because she has already been punished twice. Prosecutors have said there is no plan at this time to schedule a new execution, but the state has not ruled out a third attempt.

Medical experts advising Pike's team had warned that lethal injection could fail because of her small veins and a clotting condition. It was also reported that Pike had asked to be hanged instead. Dr Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist, said the drug likely went into the soft tissue of her arm rather than her bloodstream because the intravenous line failed. He said lethal injection was created to look like a medical procedure but has no proper monitoring, and that the outward appearance of calm does not prove a prisoner is not suffering. Witnesses described at least seven needles being used in her left arm, with one bent at a 90 degree angle. Her lawyers said her arms were burned and blistered.

The case has reopened debate about capital punishment in the United States. Twenty-seven states still have the death penalty on their books, though several have moratoriums. Executions have risen since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, with 47 carried out last year, the highest annual total since 2009. Texas went ahead with the execution of Jamal Howard by lethal injection shortly after the Pike case, despite concerns raised by his lawyers that the same drug had failed in Tennessee. In Tennessee, some politicians have called for alternative methods such as the electric chair. Pike's victim's mother, who travelled from Florida to witness the attempted execution, said the state had failed her family and that she wanted Pike to remain on death row.

Pike's legal team say she deserves answers about what was done to her, and that the public deserves those answers too. The state's review is continuing. For now, Pike is back in prison, receiving ongoing medical care, while the courts and Tennessee authorities decide what happens next.