Confusion between prison officials and first responders delayed emergency medical assistance for Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike after she survived a lethal-injection attempt, according to newly released 911 recordings. The recordings show that dispatchers initially classified a call from inside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution as false, with emergency responders not cleared to enter the prison until around 9:11 p.m. September 30—roughly 30 minutes after the initial call.
The delay adds another troubling dimension to Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute Pike, 50, who survived two doses of the lethal-injection drug pentobarbital. The state has yet to explain publicly what went wrong during the procedure, which was intended to carry out her death sentence for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike spent several days in the hospital on a ventilator, and her lawyers initially feared she would not survive.
She subsequently regained consciousness, began speaking and walking with assistance. She was discharged on October 10 before returning to the women’s prison where she has been held for more than three decades. Her lawyers say she continues to recover, although the extent of any lasting injuries remains unclear.
The 911 call recordings offer a more detailed account of the chaotic aftermath. In the initial call, a caller whose identity was redacted told dispatchers that an execution had been attempted but Pike was still alive. The dispatcher requested a code to verify the emergency, which the caller could not provide.
At 9:03 p.m., dispatchers said, they had been told the call was false and that no medical assistance was needed at the prison. Prison officials subsequently confirmed the call, allowing emergency personnel to enter at 9:11 p.m. They say they are some sort of state official.
I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people," they said. The recordings raise questions about how an emergency inside an execution chamber could be mistaken for a false alarm and whether the confusion delayed treatment. The Tennessee Department of Correction has not publicly explained what caused the execution to fail.
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