Tennessee corrections commissioner to resign after failed execution
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee says corrections commissioner Frank Strada will leave his post this month after the failed lethal-injection execution of Christa Pike. Pike’s lawyers say she remains unconscious and on a ventilator. Lee has halted executions for the rest of the year while the state reviews its procedures.
Tennessee Department of Correction commissioner Frank Strada will resign this month after the state’s latest failed execution, Governor Bill Lee said on Saturday. The announcement followed Wednesday’s unsuccessful lethal-injection execution of Christa Pike, a 50-year-old convicted murderer. Pike’s lawyers say she survived two injections of pentobarbital and is now unconscious and on a ventilator in a hospital.
Pike was sentenced over the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Her lawyers say the execution did not proceed as intended, leaving her in critical condition. In a statement, Lee thanked Strada for what he called his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during a difficult moment.
Strada said the Department of Correction had carried out its responsibilities according to established protocol. The incident was Tennessee’s second failed execution this year. The state halted another execution in May after medical staff were unable to tap a vein in the prisoner’s arm.
Lee, who had previously denied Pike clemency, has suspended further executions through the end of the year while a review is conducted. The material does not specify who will replace Strada or what changes the review may recommend. Had the drugs killed Pike, she would have been the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries.
The Death Penalty Information Centre says 18 women have been executed in the United States since 1976.
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