Attorneys for Tennessee death-row prisoners want to add the claims to an ongoing lawsuit over the state’s lethal-injection procedures. The filing describes repeated difficulty establishing IV access during Pike’s Sept. 30 execution attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, as well as problems reported during other executions. The allegations have not been adjudicated, and the filing does not establish whether the IV issues kept the drugs from entering Pike’s bloodstream as intended.

Execution team members spent nearly an hour trying to place IV lines in Pike’s arms, the motion alleges. Afterward, staff encountered resistance while flushing the tubing with saline and repeatedly asked that the line in her left arm be checked, according to the filing.

Pike’s attorney, Randy Spivey, who witnessed the execution, said the warden attributed the difficulty to the line’s position and tape that was too tight. Spivey said the execution physician did not try a central IV line, an alternative allowed under Tennessee’s protocol.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps. Her attempted execution lasted more than two hours and ended after two doses of pentobarbital.

According to her attorneys, Pike complained that her arm felt as if it were “about to bust” and that one area was “really burning.” She continued speaking with her spiritual adviser after the first dose. Her breathing later became labored, and officials closed the curtains between the execution chamber and witnesses.

After the second dose, Spivey said Pike’s right arm looked purple below the elbow. Witnesses heard increasingly loud choking and rhythmic gasping, the filing says. They remained behind closed curtains for nearly an hour as Pike struggled to breathe.

The filing also raises questions about the response after officials sought an ambulance. A 911 call was made at 8:40 p.m., but emergency responders were delayed after prison staff initially failed to provide a verification code and dispatchers were incorrectly told the request was not legitimate. Responders entered the prison at 9:15 p.m.; Pike was taken out of the facility at 9:26 p.m.

She remained unresponsive in critical condition for nearly a week and regained consciousness Oct. 6. Her attorneys later reported pneumonia, a blood clot, difficulty walking and swallowing, cognitive problems, and an inability to move her arms or hands. The full extent of her injuries has not been disclosed.

The motion cites other alleged problems under Tennessee’s lethal-injection protocol, adopted in January 2025. It says officials declared Byron Black dead in August 2025 even though an electrocardiogram showed electrical activity in his heart for nearly two minutes afterward. It also questions the qualifications of the physician involved in the May 2026 attempted execution of Tony Carruthers, which Gov. Bill Lee halted after officials spent more than an hour trying unsuccessfully to establish IV access.

In an earlier deposition, the physician said he had not placed a central IV line since 2013 and had performed the procedure about a dozen times, according to the filing. Attorneys also point to signs of distress during the executions of Harold Wayne Nichols and Anthony Darrell Hines, and to the state’s failure to install an EKG printer before Oscar Smith’s May 2025 execution.

The prisoners’ attorneys argue the incidents show that their concerns about Tennessee’s execution procedures are not hypothetical. The state has asked the court to dismiss parts of the lawsuit, arguing that claims about the risk of improperly conducted executions are speculative.

The plaintiffs are asking Chancellor Russell Perkins to let them add the new allegations. A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6, and the case is set for trial in February 2027.