Warning: Graphic content After spending decades in prison for a gruesome murder, Christa Pike was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. But something went wrong. The 50-year-old survived two ostensibly lethal doses of the drug pentobarbital, spent more than a week in the hospital and returned to a maximum-security prison as her future remains uncertain. Pike’s experience surviving lethal injection is unprecedented, leading to a pause on executions in Tennessee and reigniting the debate over the humanity and reliability of capital punishment methods. Here’s what we know about how Pike landed in prison, her legal battle while on death row and what happened during and after the failed execution: Failed execution prompts scrutiny and questions over what comes next Oct. 22: Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey says Tennessee execution team members warned that some of Pike’s veins may have ruptured or “blown” as they were trying to establish working IV lines in her arms before the attempted execution. The attorney wrote a detailed account of the execution attempt in a court document. Oct. 13: The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications tells CNN it followed standard processes after receiving the 911 call from the maximum security prison, sending first responders to stage in the area while dispatchers worked to verify the emergency. Callers from the prison must provide a verification code to prevent fake calls or escape attempts. The caller did not provide a code, officials said. Oct. 12: Audio and transcripts of 911 dispatch recordings after the botched execution, obtained by The Associated Press, reveal emergency help for Pike was delayed by confusion and miscommunication between first responders and prison officials. Oct. 10: Pike is discharged from the hospital and returns to prison. She “is dealing with the profound psychological trauma of having survived a failed execution, including the terror, pain and uncertainty of believing she was about to die,” her attorneys said in a statement, adding it could take months to determine if she has lasting cognitive injuries. If Pike is found to be competent, experts said her attorneys could argue a second execution attempt would violate her constitutional protections against double jeopardy, which prevent individuals from being prosecuted or punished for the same crime twice. Oct. 7: More than a week after the botched execution, Pike’s attorneys appear in a Nashville courthouse to take the first steps in what will likely be a drawn-out legal fight to prevent a second attempt to put Pike to death. Whether Tennessee will again attempt to execute Pike remains unknown, and may come down to a judicial ruling or the governor’s intervention. Oct. 6: Pike regains consciousness while hospitalized. “Her recovery is medically unprecedented. Her prognosis remains unclear but, at a minimum, we expect a long recovery,” her attorneys said in a statement. Oct. 3: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announces Frank Strada, the commissioner of the U.S. Department of Correction, would soon step down. Less than three years earlier, Lee brought Strada on to lead the Department of Correction, tasking him with reforming Tennessee’s execution system after enduring concerns over the state’s approach to the death penalty. This is the second botched execution under Strada’s purview. Oct. 1: The next scheduled execution is halted and the Tennessee governor orders an independent review of the U.S. Department of Correction’s actions in carrying out Pike’s execution. The execution fails Sept. 30: Pike is rushed to a Nashville-area hospital unconscious. The Tennessee Department of Correction maintains it followed standard protocol, including the use of a second injection of pentobarbital if the inmate survives the first. There is no protocol for what happens if the second injection does not work. Her attorneys believe IV complications caused the lethal drug to flow into her body tissue rather than her bloodstream. 8:53 p.m.: The microphone in the execution chamber at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee, is cut off. The witnesses are led out of the viewing area. 8:50 p.m.: Spivey, an attorney for Pike who was in the witness room, is told an ambulance was on its way to the prison. Approximately at 8:40 p.m.: A 911 call requesting medical assistance at the maximum-security prison is made, according to the Nashville Department of Emergency Communications. 8:15 p.m.: Witnesses continue hearing Pike making sounds and Pike’s attorney tells the prison staff they need to stop the execution. He is escorted to a phone in a separate room of the prison, where he calls other members of Pike’s legal team and asks them to help stop the execution, the attorney said. 8:05 p.m.: Pike appears to lose consciousness. The blinds are closed, but witnesses can hear Pike breathing heavily. 7:49 p.m.: The blinds are reopened. 7:46 p.m.: The execution chamber blinds are closed, presumably indicating a second dose of pentobarbital is administered in accordance with Tennessee’s protocol, according to a media witness. Her attorneys later said a second dose was given. 7:34 p.m.: Pike says her arm felt like it was about to burst, but she remains awake. She appears to be talking, breathing, moaning and snoring over the following minutes, witnesses said. 7:26 p.m.: The window blinds to the execution chamber open for the first time. Pike delivers what was to be her final statement: “I just want to say that I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life. And that is with love.” The execution drugs are administered. During the procedure, executioners struggled to place IV lines to administer the doses of pentobarbital, according to Pike’s attorneys, and the execution team spent an hour trying to establish an IV line and used about 10 needles. 6:41 p.m.: Media and official witnesses are brought into the witness room, according to media witnesses. Last-minute appeals precede the failed execution Earlier on Sept. 30: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns a stay by an appeals court, which stops the execution an hour before it was set to begin. The appeals court said it wanted to review whether her allegations of sexual abuse as a child were fully considered before she was sentenced to death. In the years Pike was incarcerated, her attorneys try many times to get her sentence commuted, and file a formal clemency petition emphasizing she was only 18 years old at the time of the 1995 murder. They also warn about Pike’s history of difficulties with finding vein access. The crime that led to death row March 1996: At 20 years old, Pike becomes one of the youngest women to be sentenced to death, and the youngest person on death row at the time in Tennessee. January 1995: Pike, 18, and her boyfriend lure 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate in a Job Corps training program, to an isolated area away from campus where they torture and kill her by beating and stabbing her, according to a Tennessee Supreme Court opinion. The boyfriend was later convicted in the killing. The violent killing makes headlines due to gruesome details made public, including how a satanic symbol was carved into Slemmer’s body. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has described her daughter as kind, nurturing and passionate. “She was a computer geek to begin with. She and my husband would build and tear apart the computers constantly,” Martinez told AP. “She trusted everybody, and that was her downfall.” By Chris Boyette, CNN
