Recording captures attorney pleading for Pike’s immediate life-saving care
The Nashville Department of Emergency Communications released the recordings on Monday, shedding new light on minutes of delay before emergency services responded to the September 30 execution attempt at Riverbend Prison. The recordings were first obtained by the Associated Press.
The first call was released only in written transcript. “We’ve been carrying out an execution tonight. We’ve administered 10 grams of pentobarbital. The person is not yet deceased. That started approximately 1 hour ago. And we’re calling for an ambulance,” the caller told the dispatcher, according to the transcript.
The dispatcher asked the caller for a verification code, which the caller did not have.
The DEC also released other calls between the agency and the police and highway patrol. In one recording, a dispatcher can be heard saying: “We are trying to find out if that is an actual thing that is happening and we need to send an ambulance and, or if you need police assistance or if this is someone that is just basically prank calling or, like, swatting us.”
In another recording, Kelly Gleason, Pike’s defense attorney, can be heard saying: “She is still alive and breathing and needs immediate life-saving care.”
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death after murdering Colleen Slemmer with her then-boyfriend in 1995. She survived two injections of pentobarbital on September 30 and was taken to hospital in a critical condition.