911 operators thought botched Christa Pike execution call was a prank, audio reveals

Newly released 911 recordings reveal that emergency dispatchers initially treated a call about Christa Pike's botched execution as a hoax, leading to confusion and a delayed response. An unidentified caller rang in at around 8:40pm on September 30, roughly an hour after Pike's scheduled execution had begun, but could not provide a verification code. Dispatchers debated whether the call was a swatting attempt before eventually dispatching an ambulance.

Pike survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital during the September 30 execution attempt and at one point required a ventilator before regaining consciousness.

Tennessee death row inmate Gary Wayne Sutton has since been granted a one-year reprieve from his own execution date in the wake of the Pike debacle.

Florida prisoner James Robertson, 63, who murdered his cellmate as a means of getting himself placed on death row, was executed at Florida State Prison on Tuesday.