US Emergency Call Records Reveal Confusion Following Failed Execution of Christa Pike

Killer of Colin Slemer Taken to Hospital After Two Lethal Injection Doses Fail to Kill Him

Emergency call records reveal chaos among prison staff and emergency responders after convicted killer Krista Pike was executed in Tennessee last month.

Pike, 50, who killed Colin Slammer along with her then-boyfriend in 1995, received two lethal injections on September 30. When it was determined that he was not going to die from the dose, he was taken to the hospital.

Apparently, this delayed Pike's treatment. The BBC has asked the State Department of Corrections for comment.

The department has yet to say what it believes went wrong in the attempt to execute Pike. Pike's legal team has explained that the pentobarbital chemical he was injected with probably spread under the skin rather than reaching the bloodstream in sufficient quantities to kill him.

Pike has now been released from hospital, although in the latest update on his health, his team warned that he faces a "long road to recovery". It is unclear what treatment he will receive now that he is back in prison.

His case is now in uncharted territory as he is believed to be the only person to have survived an attempted execution by lethal injection.

Slammer's mother, who was among those trying to have Pike executed, described the botched execution as a "mess."

Pike's boyfriend at the time of the murder, Tadaryl Shipp, remains in prison and is spared the death penalty because he was an adult at the time of the crime.

Prosecutors say Krista Pike suffered a "profound" health condition after the botched execution

Can Krista Pike be executed again?

The sequence of events on the evening of September 30 was compiled by US media using a combination of recordings and transcripts of emergency calls. The records were published in full by Arjan Ambassador's Nashville Banner.

The initial call from the Riverbend prison — reportedly made at 8:40 p.m. local time — was deemed false by first responders after the caller failed to authenticate himself using a code.

It appears that the person was in the part of the prison where the injection was given. They said, "Tonight we are executing. We have given 10 grams of pentobarbital. The person is not dead yet. It started almost an hour ago. And we want an ambulance."

The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications released records of its conversations with other local agencies and attempted to verify the authenticity of the call.

The confusion appears to have been compounded by other prison staff, from the institution's central command, who said at 21:07 that they were "the ones making the call" and that they "didn't make that call".

It was around 21:11 that prison officials confirmed that the initial call, made about half an hour earlier, was indeed genuine. At that time, emergency responders were allowed to pass through the prison gates.

A follow-up call acknowledged that the situation had been chaotic. At 9:34 p.m., as Pike was being transported to the hospital, one of the doctors asked a colleague to make sure the jail knew where Pike was being taken, "just because there was some other confusion."

Pike's attorneys have yet to comment on the tape.

Over the past week, his team has provided frequent updates on Pike's condition — detailing how he will regain the ability to walk and talk before he is released from the hospital.

It is unclear whether the state will try to execute Pike again. Some state Republicans have called for a new approach. Meanwhile, Pike's legal team is asking Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to commute his sentence to a lesser sentence of life in prison without parole.

Currently, Lee has halted state executions until the end of the year. An investigation into what went wrong in Pike's execution is ongoing.

The head of the country's corrections department resigns from his position following this wrongful execution.