Tennessee prison chief resigns after failed execution leaves inmate on ventilator

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada has resigned after death row inmate Christa Pike survived a failed execution attempt, RTE.ie reported. Pike survived two lethal injection doses and was placed on a ventilator in critical condition. [1][4][5]

The BBC reported that the outgoing prison chief oversaw five botched execution cases. Following the failed execution, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all executions in the state for the rest of the year pending an independent investigation, as FTMQ News reported earlier. [1][4][5]

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 at age 20 for the 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee. If her execution is carried out, she will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years and the 19th woman executed nationwide since 1976. [2]