Tennessee officials are reviewing Christa Pike’s Sept. 30 execution attempt after her attorney described repeated IV placement problems and medical experts questioned how the procedure was carried out.
Randy Spivey, Pike’s attorney and a witness to the attempt, described the procedure in a court declaration. The filing says staff used about 10 needles to establish intravenous access and struggled to flush one line with saline. It also recounts Pike grimacing as staff worked and members of the team wondering whether a vein might be “blowing.”
Jonathan Groner, an emeritus professor of clinical surgery at Ohio State University, told The Guardian that the account left questions about who was directing the procedure. He also discussed staff training for ultrasound use and said the actions “would have been malpractice in a clinical situation.” Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology and surgery in Atlanta who testified in Pike’s earlier legal proceedings, told The Guardian that the timeline raised concerns about the protocol and catheter size.
Pike survived after receiving two doses of pentobarbital. Her attorneys’ court filing and later discharge statement document a 10-day hospital stay, including several days on a ventilator. Pike was 18 when she committed the 1995 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer, for which she was sentenced to death.
The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) said after the attempt that its team had “followed every step” of the state-approved protocol. Gov. Bill Lee requested an independent review, and the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office retained former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton on Oct. 3. The review will assess how the department handled the procedure and whether changes to its rules are warranted.
Tennessee canceled its remaining scheduled execution for 2026 while the review proceeds. The state said an independent review in 2022 prompted a substantial rewrite of its execution protocol. The Oct. 3 announcement set no deadline for Stanton’s work.
