LAWYER DETAILS FAILED EXECUTION OF CHRISTA PIKE

Christa Pike’s lawyer says a Tennessee execution team questioned whether it had found a vein before administering pentobarbital during a failed lethal injection on 30 September. Randy Spivey, who witnessed the procedure, set out his account in a declaration released during separate legal proceedings. He said team members used up to 10 needles while trying to establish an intravenous line in Pike’s arms. About 20 minutes into the attempt, they began discussing whether the vein “might be blowing”, according to Spivey. The team continued with the procedure, but Pike survived.

Spivey said two unidentified team members poked the site where they were trying to place the line. Neither could tell whether the needle had entered the vein, he said. He recalled one saying something like: “It’s either blood or blown, I need to know.” According to his account, the search for a vein began at 6.35pm and the team left the chamber at 7.24pm, believing the procedure had gone to plan. Pike remained alive and made snoring and choking sounds.

Officials eventually called off the execution, and Pike spent 10 days in hospital before returning to prison in Nashville. She can now talk and walk, but her long-term prognosis remains unknown. Spivey’s account raises questions about what the team knew of the intravenous line before the drug began to flow. The declaration gives a detailed chronology of the procedure but does not establish why Pike survived.