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Tennessee's prisons chief is resigning after failed execution of Christa Pike · Best of: Features

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  Tennessee's prison chief is resigning, after failed execution of Krista Pike. Written
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  by Ed White. This article is being read by an automated voice
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  generated by Everlett. The head of Tennessee's prison system is resigning, governor's
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  Bill Lee announced Saturday, the first major staff shakeup, since Krista Pike's
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  stunning failed execution left her unconscious and on a ventilator at a
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  hospital. Frank Strada, Commissioner of the Department of Correction, will step down
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  this month, Lee said. Some of the Governor's fellow Republicans and other
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  elected officials had been urging a change in leadership. It was the
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  second time since May that Tennessee has not been able to execute
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  a prisoner who was seemingly moments away from death. The Governor also
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  announced that former U. S. Attorney Ed Stanton would lead a review
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  of what happened in Pike's death chamber. Stanton's previously was named to
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  conduct a review after Lee called off a different execution in twenty
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  twenty two. He found in that case that Tennessee had not complied
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  with its own lethal injection process. Strata said in a statement that
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  resigning was in the best interest of Tennesseans, while Stanton's review is
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  conducted. The state failed to execute Pike despite administering two doses of
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  a lethal drug pentobarbital. Pike, now fifty, was eighteen when she and
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  her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a jealous
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  rage in nineteen ninety five, she became one of the youngest women
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  to be sent to death row. Strata Defense Execution Protocol. There was
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  no immediate response from Pike's lawyers for an update Saturday on her
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  condition at a hospital. They had disclosed Friday that she was on
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  a ventilator and unconscious in the hours following the execution attempt, and
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  that hospital staff were trying to clear the two doses of pentobarbital.
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  The shocking failure has left both sides of the death penalty debate
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  demanding answers. Lee has ordered an independent review and halted any new
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  executions. Strata said he believes the state carried out its responsibilities in
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  accordance with the established protocol. Pike's legal team welcomed Strata's departure but
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  said, it does nothing to help Krista now. What happened to her
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  Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,
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  they Four lawyer team said. We hope the Governor's call for a
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  full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee's entire death
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  penalty system. Second failed execution since May. Pike's attorneys said The believed
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  problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her
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  body instead of her bloodstream. Pike was extraordinarily cooperative with the execution
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  team, even instructing the to please try here, please try here, as
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  they tried to insert lines, lawyer, Randy Spivey told reporters Thursday. In
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  May, Tennessee stopped the execution of Tony Carruthers after staff placed an
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  IV into his right arm but couldn't get a secondary IV line.
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  The governor ordered officials to wait at least a year before trying
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  to execute him again. Strada took over the correction department in january
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  twenty twenty three after serving as Deputy Director of the Arizona Department
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  of Corrections. In late 2024, he announced that Tennessee was changing its
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  lethal injection protocol and would use only pentobarbital. Four people have been
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  executed in Tennessee since twenty twenty five, according to the Correction Department.
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  Some Arizona executions had snags. Court filings show that Strada's job included
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  overseeing executions in Arizona when they resumed in 2022 following an eight-year
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  break. Clarence Dixon was the first that year. The medical team had
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  trouble finding a vein to administer the lethal drugs, and finally made
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  an incision in his groin area. The process took about twenty five
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  minutes. That same year in Arizona medical staff preparing Frank Atwood for
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  execution initially, could not locate a vein in his right arm, but
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  inserted the in his right hand. At Atwad's suggestion, said Henry Brian,
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  an Arizona Daily Star reporter who was a witness. Strata announced Murray
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  Hooper's execution by lethal injection, the third, in twenty twenty two. There
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  was an unsuccessful attempt to insert an IV line in his right
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  arm. The IV in Hooper's leg was inserted into his femoral artery.
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  When Governor Lee hired Strata to fix execution problems in Tennessee, his
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  problematic history of executions in Arizona was well known, said Kit Thomas,
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  an attorney who has represented people on Tennessee's death row.