Tennessee Execution Team Took Nearly an Hour to Find a Vein in Christa Pike's Failed Execution

Tennessee's execution team took nearly an hour to establish intravenous access on Christa Pike during her failed lethal injection on Sept. 30, according to an account from her attorney, Randy Spivey, who was in the death chamber. Pike survived a dose of pentobarbital that is normally fatal. The account appears in court documents filed by the Federal Public Defender's Office of East Tennessee, which is asking a court to add a supplemental complaint to its earlier challenge to the state's lethal injection protocol. A hearing on that request is set for Nov. 6. Spivey said four unidentified IV team members tried to find a vein and seemed to have difficulty pushing saline through the lines. The new details also indicate the team doubted the lines before the drug was injected. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Prosecutors say Pike, who was 18, and two accomplices tortured, slashed and fatally beat her. Pike was also convicted of attempted murder in 2001 for trying to strangle another prisoner with a shoestring.

Just the News, on the right, uses a procedural headline about attorneys detailing the failed execution. It leads with the Department of Correction team, the Federal Public Defender filings, the Nov. 6 hearing and Spivey's account, and quotes the proposed complaint. It also gives Pike's crimes, including Slemmer's killing and the 2001 conviction. The Guardian US, on the left, leads with medical experts' reaction. Its headline calls the team's conduct 'malpractice,' and it quotes Jonathan Groner of Ohio State calling the incompetence astounding. Both rely on Spivey's account and the nearly hour-long search for a vein. The Guardian's excerpt does not cover Pike's crimes; Just the News's excerpt includes no outside medical voices. Straight Arrow News stands apart in stressing the team's fear that Pike's veins had blown before injection.