Emergency help for Christa Pike was delayed by confusion over a call from prison after her failed execution, 911 dispatch recordings reviewed by The Associated Press have revealed. The recordings show that precious minutes elapsed as officials and responders tried to figure out whether a request for emergency help in the execution chamber was legitimate.
Confusion Over Legitimacy of Emergency Call
The first call came in at 8:40 p.m., and it was more than half an hour before prison officials affirmed it was legitimate. “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 affirmed the call for help was legitimate, the calls show.
Background of the Case
Christa Pike, who was sentenced three decades ago for the murder of her 19-year-old classmate, was set to be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. Pike, aged 18, lured her classmate Colleen Slemmer into an isolated area of the University of Tennessee campus and brutally killed her in January 1995, after believing Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend. Pike's boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and their friend Shadolla Peterson were also convicted of participating in Slemmer's murder.
Aftermath of the Execution Attempt
Pike, 50, was due to be executed on Wednesday September 30 but she survived two lethal injections of the drug pentobarbital. She was rushed to hospital where medical staff attempted to save her life. Pike's lawyers, on Wednesday last week, said the inmate had been shackled to the hospital bed in a heavily guarded room and she felt "confused and angry".
Speaking to the press outside the Tennessee court house, her lawyer Randy Spivey told reporters Pike was "very aware that the state tried to execute her". Spivey said Pike asked two questions as soon as she woke up: "Where am I and who are you?"
