Court filing details 10-needle struggle in failed Tennessee execution

Ten needles. That is the number Randy Spivey, attorney for death row inmate Christa Pike, cites in a court filing describing the execution team's struggle to access her veins. The document, submitted Thursday, provides the most granular account yet of the Sept. 30 attempt that left the 50-year-old Pike hospitalized after she survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital.

The procedure began at 6:34 p.m. with the placement of two required intravenous lines. Spivey writes that the team found a site in Pike's right arm within six minutes. The left arm presented a far greater challenge, consuming nearly an hour of the session. During this time, Pike suggested the team examine her upper arm for usable veins. Spivey noted that she was "wincing and grimacing" as staff moved needles across her skin.

Concerns about the integrity of the veins emerged early. At 6:57 p.m., one team member stated a vein "might be blowing," though colleagues could not initially confirm the damage. A subsequent needle appeared severely bent upon removal. By 7:07 p.m., another member declared, "I think it's blown." The team finalized the left arm IV placement at 7:13 p.m.

Telephone calls to the execution chamber started roughly five minutes later. Spivey reported that staff administering the drug from an adjoining room repeatedly asked the IV team to check Pike's left arm. The exact moment the pentobarbital entered the lines remains unclear. However, at 7:34 p.m., Pike told the team, "I feel like my arm is about to bust. It burns." She continued speaking with a spiritual adviser for approximately 10 minutes before producing an "agitated snoring sound."

Over the next 30 minutes, Spivey observed Pike straining, flinching, and struggling to breathe. When he requested a phone to coordinate with colleagues, he was routed through the facility for seven minutes instead of using the witness room line. At 8:22 p.m., he called to halt the execution, noting that a third dose was not authorized under state protocol. He instructed the deputy attorney general that Pike required immediate medical intervention.

Spivey received confirmation at 8:50 p.m. that an ambulance was en route. Twenty minutes later, he was informed that medical staff were performing life-saving measures. Pike was transported to the hospital, where an ambulance arrived at 9:14 p.m. She was placed on a ventilator for several days and has since returned to prison.

The filing supports a broader legal challenge to Tennessee's lethal injection procedures. Kit Thomas, an attorney representing other death row inmates, stated that the botched execution confirmed predictions about the protocol's risks. Thomas said the likelihood of such errors would persist without substantial changes to the state's methods.

Pike was convicted in 1995 for the stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. At 18, she was one of the youngest women sentenced to death in the state. Tennessee law mandates a second dose if the first fails, but it does not specify procedures for surviving a second injection.