911 Calls Show Delay After Christa Pike Execution Attempt

Emergency responders were kept outside a Tennessee prison for about 30 minutes after Christa Pike survived a lethal-injection attempt on Sept. 30, as dispatch recordings show officials and responders struggled to determine whether an emergency call was genuine. Pike was later discharged from the hospital and returned to prison, according to her attorneys. The first call for assistance came at 8:40 p.m., according to 911 recordings reviewed by the Associated Press. At 9:03 p.m., a person on the recordings said dispatch supervisors had been told the call was false and that no medical assistance was needed at Riverbend Prison. Four minutes later, a responder reported that people at the prison gate were insisting the emergency was real. Prison officials confirmed the call’s legitimacy at about 9:11 p.m., and responders were then allowed inside, the recordings show. They do not establish why the original request was treated as false or detail the medical care Pike received after responders entered. Pike, 50, was hospitalized after receiving two doses of pentobarbital during the state’s attempt to execute her.