Tennessee’s top prison official is stepping down in the aftermath of the failed execution of death row prisoner Christa Pike, the state’s governor Bill Lee announced Saturday. Frank Strada, the department of correction commissioner, will leave his position later in October as the state launches an independent investigation into what went wrong during Wednesday’s botched execution of Pike, according to Lee. Strada for his part said his resignation would allow that review to move forward in the best interests of Tennessee.
She became the first death row prisoner in the US to undergo such an execution attempt and live. Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey, who witnessed the procedure from inside the death chamber, described what happened as “cruel and torturous”. He said he personally counted seven needles inserted into Pike’s left arm, “one of which appeared to be bent when it was pulled from her”.
Attorneys have alleged that Pike’s failed lethal injection was the fifth “botched” execution carried out under Strada’s leadership in two states since 2022, as the Guardian reported on Saturday, hours before his resignation was announced. Pike remained unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital as of Friday, according to a court filing submitted by her attorneys. Her lawyers said hospital personnel were trying to save her life and, as of late Thursday, were working to clear the two doses of the execution drug from her system.
Wednesday’s extraordinary breakdown inside Tennessee’s execution chamber has triggered demands for an explanation from people on both sides of the death penalty debate. Besides ordering the independent review into case, Lee has paused the scheduling of executions in Tennessee. Pike’s attorneys said they believe complications involving intravenous lines caused pentobarbital to enter her body rather than her bloodstream.
Strada then oversaw the implementation of a new protocol that ignored the recommendations of the independent investigation and weakened protections leading to a string of problems in Tennessee, including this week’s horrific botched execution attempt and another one in May. Until there is transparency and accountability, botched executions will keep happening.” Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of teenage classmate Colleen Slemmer. Pike and her then boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, killed Slemmer at a job training camp in Knoxville.
A pentagram had been carved into Slemmer’s chest. After the murder, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, her attorneys said. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend.
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