Emergency assistance for Christa Pike was delayed by confusion among prison officials and first responders after her failed execution in Tennessee, according to 911 dispatch recordings examined by The Associated Press.
Pike, 50, was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years on Wednesday 30 September. She endured two lethal injections of pentobarbital and survived, and was transported to hospital where doctors fought to preserve her life.
Minutes lost as officials debated the call
The recordings reveal that vital minutes passed while officials and responders struggled to work out whether a call for emergency aid in the execution chamber was authentic. The initial call arrived at 8:40 p.m., and it took more than thirty minutes before prison officials confirmed it was genuine.
"Per supervisors here .... we have been informed it is a false call," one unidentified person says at 9:03 p.m. "There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison."
Four minutes later, a responder reported: "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."
It wasn't until 9:11 p.m. that prison officials confirmed the emergency call was genuine, the recordings reveal.
Background of the case
At just 18 years old, Pike enticed her fellow student Colleen Slemmer to a secluded part of the University of Tennessee campus and murdered her in January 1995, after suspecting Slemmer fancied her boyfriend. Pike's partner Tadaryl Shipp and their mate Shadolla Peterson were also found guilty of taking part in Slemmer's killing.
Pike's condition and legal moves
Pike's legal team stated on Wednesday last week that the prisoner had been restrained to the hospital bed in a heavily monitored room and felt "confused and angry". Addressing journalists outside the Tennessee courthouse, her solicitor Randy Spivey revealed Pike was "very aware that the state tried to execute her".
Spivey explained Pike posed two questions immediately upon regaining consciousness: "Where am I and who are you?". By Thursday, she was reportedly moving about her hospital room just days after awakening following her failed execution. It's understood a burst vein caused the majority of the deadly pentobarbital substance administered to Pike to gather in her tissue, which would have stopped the chemicals from reaching her bloodstream to carry out the execution.
On Saturday, following her release from hospital, Pike's legal team stated: "She is grateful to the first responders and her medical team for their care in these extraordinary circumstances." They further added: "She is continuing to receive medical care at the prison, and we will continue to track her recovery."
Pike's lawyers were advocating for her removal from death row and a reduction of her sentence to life imprisonment after her failed execution.
