Pike's Lawyer Says Tennessee IV Team Warned Veins Might Be 'Blown' Before Failed Execution

Tennessee execution team members warned that death row prisoner Christa Pike's veins might be "blown" before she was injected with pentobarbital in a failed execution attempt on 30 September, according to a court declaration by her lawyer, Randy Spivey. Spivey, who witnessed the procedure in the death chamber, gave a minute-by-minute account in a declaration released as part of separate legal proceedings. He wrote that team members failed several times to establish working IV lines in Pike's arms, using up to 10 needles. About 20 minutes into the effort, team members began discussing whether a vein might be blowing, he said. Two unidentified members poked at the site and both said they could not tell if they had found the vein; one said it was either blood or blown and that he needed to know. Pike is 50.

Right-leaning outlets tracked by Crosswire had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left-leaning and alternative/independent outlets had. Both covering sides center on the lawyer's filing and the warnings about the veins. The alternative/independent coverage, from AP, leads with the repeated failed IV attempts and the possible ruptured veins in the court document. The left-leaning Guardian US adds the chronology, the team's quoted exchanges and a framing that the team was doubtful before the drug flowed.