Christa Pike Aid Delayed

Tennessee returned death-row prisoner Christa PikeChrista PikeAmerican murderer (born 1976) to prison after she survived a failed lethal-injection attempt and spent several days hospitalized. Emergency help was delayed while dispatchers and prison officials tried to verify whether an ambulance request from Riverbend PrisonRiverbend Maximum Security Institutionmaximum security prison in Nashville, Tennessee was real. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and killing of classmate Colleen SlemmerColleen SlemmerAmerican murder victim, whom she killed with her boyfriend when they were teenagers. The first call came at 8:40 p.m., when a caller said Pike was unconscious and breathing slowly after receiving 10 grams of pentobarbital. Responders were cleared to enter about 30 minutes later. Pike’s lawyers said the drug may have spread under her skin; Tennessee has not explained the failure.