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

Tennessee execution team members failed repeatedly to establish working IV lines in death row prisoner Christa Pike's arms and warned that a vein might be "blown" before she was injected with pentobarbital on Sept. 30, her attorney Randy Spivey wrote in a court document filed Thursday. Spivey, who witnessed the procedure, said the team used about 10 needles and tried several sites on both arms, and struggled to push saline through the last line. Pike, 50, survived two doses and was hospitalized. She was on a ventilator for several days, and her attorneys at one point did not expect her to survive. She regained consciousness and returned to prison. She was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of classmate Colleen Slemmer, which she committed at 18. State protocol calls for a second dose if the first fails but does not say what to do if the second fails.

Right-leaning outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left-leaning and alternative/independent outlets had. AP, the alternative outlet, reported the filing's core claim about failed IV attempts and warnings of ruptured veins. The Guardian US and HuffPost add Spivey's account, the protocol gap and renewed scrutiny of Tennessee's procedures.