911 recordings reveal confusion after Christa Pike's botched execution

Help for Christa Pike after her failed execution was delayed due to confusion among emergency responders and Tennessee prison officials, according to dispatch recordings.

The recordings, obtained by The Associated Press news agency through a public records request, show minutes passed as officials and responders tried to figure out whether a request for emergency help in the execution chamber was legitimate.

The initial 911 call came in at 8.40pm on 30 September, just over an hour after the attempted lethal injection got under way, but the caller was unable to provide a code to help verify the request's legitimacy.

At 9.03pm, a dispatcher is heard saying: "Per supervisors here at the DEC (Department of Emergency Communications), we have been informed it is a false call. There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison."

As emergency responders worked to verify the call, they were in touch with representatives of the prison's Central Control, who said they "would have been the ones to call in" and they "did not make that call", according to a recording time-stamped at 9.07pm.

Around the same time, a first responder could be heard over the radio saying: "Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it's real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people."

It was not until about half an hour after the initial call, at around 9.11pm, that Central Control confirmed the call was legitimate, clearing the way for responders to pass through the gates.

At 9.34pm, as medics were transporting Pike to a hospital, one asked dispatch to make sure the prison knew where they were taking her.

"Just 'cause there's been so much other confusion, I want to make sure they are aware of this," the person said.

Two subsequent emergency calls were made, including one at 9.08pm by one of Pike's attorneys, Kelly Gleason.

"My client, Christa Gail Pike, is undergoing a state execution. She has completed the stages of the protocol and last we knew from the attorney who is present, she is still alive and breathing and needs immediate life-saving care," Ms Gleason said on the call.

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The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications released, with some redactions, the batch of audio recordings from dispatchers.

Police said the audio from the first 911 call was exempt from public disclosure under state law.

Pike survives botched execution

Pike was set to be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee for more than 200 years after being convicted of killing her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

The 50-year-old was given two doses of a lethal drug used by Tennessee in executions.

Pike's lawyers said her recovery in hospital was "medically unprecedented". Now she has been discharged to the women's prison in Nashville, Tennessee, where she had been held for decades.

Frank Strada, commissioner of Tennessee's Department of Correction, had announced he would step down this month while an independent review determines what happened, state governor Bill Lee said.

Neither the Tennessee Department of Correction nor Pike's legal team immediately responded to requests for comment from AP.

(c) Sky News 2026: 911 recordings reveal confusion after Christa Pike's botched execution