Tennessee prisons chief resigns following botched execution of Christa Pike

The head of the Tennessee prison system, Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, has resigned following a failed execution attempt on death row inmate Christa Pike, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and The Hill reported. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced on Saturday that Frank Strada would step down as an independent investigation examines the incident, according to the BBC, Al Jazeera, and The Guardian. [2][3][4][6]

The BBC and France 24 both reported that Christa Pike remains in critical condition after surviving two lethal injections during the attempt on Wednesday. According to the BBC, lawyers for Christa Pike stated that the failure goes far beyond any one person, while Sky News reported that lawyers said Frank Strada oversaw five botched executions. [1][2][5]

In 1995, eighteen-year-old Christa Pike and her boyfriend lured nineteen-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer into woods in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they tortured and killed her. A Knox County jury convicted Christa Pike, and she received a death sentence in 1996 at twenty years of age. [11][12]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, Governor Lee halted all further executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year pending the outcome of the independent review. [13][14]