Execution staff feared IV site had ‘exploded’ during attempted execution of Christa Pike

Nashville, TennesseeP.A. —

Members of the Tennessee execution team repeatedly failed to establish working intravenous lines in Christa Pike’s arms before her attempted execution and warned that some of her veins may have ruptured or “exploded” before she was injected with pentobarbital, her attorney wrote in a court document filed Thursday.

The IV team used about 10 needles and tried multiple IV sites on both arms, attorney Randy Spivey wrote in the document. They even had trouble getting saline into the last IV site they established, Spivey wrote.

Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital as the state attempted to execute her Sept. 30 for the stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995. She was 18 when she tortured and killed Slemmer with her boyfriend, becoming one of the youngest women on death row.

The state’s protocol calls for a second dose of pentobarbital if the first does not result in death, but it does not specify what to do if a person survives the second injection.

After being taken to the hospital, Pike was on a ventilator for several days. At one point, her lawyers didn’t expect her to survive. She eventually regained consciousness and returned to prison after being released.

The failed execution has sparked new scrutiny of how Tennessee carries out death sentences.