Tennessee execution fails as emergency call logs expose prison chaos

Emergency call records have exposed the confusion that engulfed prison staff and dispatchers after the attempted execution of Christa Pike went wrong in Tennessee last month.

Pike, 50, was convicted of murdering Colleen Slemmer in 1995 alongside her then-boyfriend. She received two doses of lethal injection on 30 September. When it became clear the drug would not kill her, she was taken to hospital.

The confusion stemmed in part from an apparent disconnect between prison staff, according to the AP news agency, which first obtained audio of the emergency calls. This allegedly delayed Pike's treatment. The BBC has asked the state corrections department for comment, and the department has not yet said what it believes went wrong.

Pike's legal team has offered its own explanation. The pentobarbital with which she was injected probably spread under the skin rather than reaching her bloodstream in sufficient quantity to kill her.

Pike has now been discharged from hospital. In its most recent update on her health, her team cautioned that she faced a "long road to recovery". It is not clear what treatment, if any, she is receiving now that she is back in prison.

Her case has entered uncharted territory. She is thought to be the only person to have survived an execution attempt by lethal injection. Slemmer's mother, who was among those pushing for Pike to be put to death, has branded the failed execution a "mess".

Tadaryl Shipp, Pike's boyfriend at the time of the murder, remains in prison. He was spared the death penalty because he was not yet an adult when the crime was committed.

US media pieced together the sequence of events on the evening of 30 September using a combination of emergency call recordings and transcripts. The Nashville Banner published the records in full.

The initial call from Riverbend Prison was made at 20:40 local time, according to reports. First responders considered it false after the caller was unable to verify themselves using a code. That person appears to have been in the part of the prison where the injections were taking place.

"We've been carrying out an execution tonight," the caller said. "We've administered 10 grams of pentobarbital. The person is not yet deceased. That started approximately one hour ago. And we're calling for an ambulance."

The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications released records of its conversations with other local agencies as it tried to confirm whether the call was genuine. The confusion appears to have been compounded by other prison staff from the institution's central command, who said at 21:07 that they "would have been the ones to call in" and that they "did not make that call".

Not until about 21:11 did prison officials verify that the initial call, made roughly half an hour earlier, had in fact been genuine. At that point, emergency responders were allowed through the prison gates. A later call acknowledged the chaos. At 21:34, as Pike was being taken to hospital, one medic asked a colleague to ensure the prison knew where she was being taken, "just 'cause there's been so much other confusion".

Pike's lawyers are yet to comment on the recordings. Over the course of last week, her team provided frequent updates on her condition, detailing how she had regained her ability to walk and talk before ultimately being discharged from hospital care.

It is unclear whether or when the state will try again to execute Pike. Some state Republicans have called for a new method to be attempted. Pike's legal team, meanwhile, is calling on Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her punishment to life in prison without parole.

For now, Lee has paused the state's executions for the remainder of the year. An investigation is taking place into what went wrong. The head of the state's corrections department is resigning from his post in the wake of the botched execution.