Recordings of 911 calls from the night of Christa Pike’s failed execution have shed light on the confusion that left emergency responders waiting outside the prison for about half an hour.
50-year-old Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed on September 30 in Tennessee by lethal injection of pentobarbital. The state’s attempt did not kill her, and an ambulance was called to take her to a hospital.
What do the 911 recordings reveal?
The recordings were obtained by the Associated Press through a public records request. The first 911 call came in at 8:40 PM. The caller couldn’t provide the code that would verify the request, and only a written transcript of that call was released.
By 9:03 PM, a dispatcher said they had been told the call was false. “There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison,” the dispatcher said.
Responders were waiting outside the prison gate trying to work out whether they were supposed to go in. They spoke to representatives of the prison’s Central Control, who said they “would have been the ones to call in” and “did not make that call.”
At about 9:07 PM, a responder said someone at the gate, described as some sort of state official, was telling them the emergency was real and demanding that they go inside.
Pike’s attorney, Kelly Gleason, was also on the phone at around this time, saying her client was still alive and needed immediate life-saving care.
It wasn’t until 9:11 PM that prison officials confirmed the call was legitimate and the gates opened. Pike was taken to a hospital at 9:34 PM, almost an hour after the first call. As a paramedic spoke to dispatch, they asked that the prison be told where she was being taken “because there’s been so much other confusion.”
How is Pike now?
Pike was on a ventilator for several days after the attempted execution, and her attorneys said at one point they didn’t expect her to survive. She later regained consciousness, began speaking, and was walking with assistance, her lawyers said. She has since been discharged and returned to prison.
Her lawyers have launched legal action over her conditions. They argue that keeping her in the prison infirmary, with no end date and no access to other inmates, violates a prior agreement about her incarceration.
Pike has also issued a statement saying she is in pain. “There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain,” she said. “My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts.”
She said she still struggles to speak, and that the pain isn’t only physical. “There is pain in my mind and in my soul.”
She also said she had not thought about life beyond that night and is “deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position.” She added, “I continue to think about my victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured.”
What happens next?
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer. The Tennessee Department of Correction hasn’t said what went wrong with the attempted execution. Governor Bill Lee has paused further executions while the state reviews what happened, and it’s unclear whether another attempt will be made on Pike.
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