Prisons chief resigns after botched execution

Frank Strada, commissioner of Tennessee's Department of Correction, is stepping down this month following the failed execution of Christa Pike on Wednesday.

Pike remains on life support after lethal injection fails

Pike, now fifty, remained in critical condition, intubated and hooked to a mechanical ventilator to breathe, after two doses of pentobarbital were administered intravenously but failed to kill her.

Pike was eighteen when she killed a classmate

Pike was eighteen when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed classmate Colleen Slemmer in a jealous rage in nineteen ninety-five, making her one of the youngest women sent to death row.

Governor rejected clemency petition

Governor Bill Lee rejected a clemency petition seeking to commute Pike's death penalty to life without parole. The petition cited her childhood history of severe neglect, sexual abuse including two rapes, and untreated mental illness.

Lawyers blame intravenous line problems

Pike's lawyers said problems with the intravenous lines caused pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream. Both her arms were swollen, burned and blistered from the caustic substance seeping into tissues under her skin.

Second failed execution since May

This was Tennessee's second failed execution since May, when staff could not establish a secondary intravenous line for Tony Carruthers. Governor Lee ordered officials to wait at least a year before trying to execute him again.

Governor orders review and halts executions

Governor Lee has ordered an independent review and halted any new executions. Pike's legal team said Strada's departure does nothing to help Pike and called for a full review to expose profound problems within Tennessee's entire death penalty system.

“What happened to her reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person.”