Christa Pike Raised Critical Concern About Physician Weeks Earlier than Failed Execution

Christa Pike raised serious concerns about the doctor who was assigned to give her a lethal injection, asking tough questions weeks before he botched her execution … TMZ has learned.

TMZ obtained court docs filed by Christa in August … a short time before her scheduled execution on September 30 … and she claims prosecutors went to “great lengths to protect and conceal the identity of the physician that the State of Tennessee uses in its executions.”

She said the government objected to any questions about the qualifications of the doctor scheduled. Christa’s legal team claimed the physician made a statement to a news outlet about his intention to participate in her execution.

Specifically, Christa said the court had routinely barred evidence about the physician present for another death row inmate, Tony Carruthers, which was another botched execution attempt.

The physician assigned to Tony was the same one assigned to Christa. Christa said the doctor in question was not qualified to “place a central line” in her to give her the lethal injection if necessary due to her compromised peripheral veins.

Prosecutors said the identity of the physician was not important or relevant and said Pike’s experts had already testified about the risks of central-line administration of the lethal injection.

The court denied Christa’s request, saying it was “not convinced the peripheral IV access will be difficult to obtain.”