Botched Execution: Prison Boss Quits
Tennessee prisons chief Frank Strada resigned on Saturday, three days after death row inmate Christa Pike survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
Tennessee prisons chief Frank Strada resigned on Saturday, three days after death row inmate Christa Pike survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
Former US Attorney Ed Stanton will lead an independent review. Strada insists his department followed protocol. Governor Bill Lee has halted all executions in the state through the end of the year.
Her lawyers say Pike, 50, is in critical condition at a Nashville hospital. The Death Penalty Information Center says she is the first person known to survive lethal doses of execution drugs.
Witnesses heard Pike snoring after the second dose around 8 pm on September 30, with much of the process hidden behind a closed curtain. It dragged on for over two hours before an ambulance was called.
Months earlier, Pike's lawyers argued in court that her medical conditions, including a blood disorder, could make lethal injection cruel and difficult. Her challenges failed.
Pike was due to be executed at 10 am. An appeals court halted it an hour before, but the US Supreme Court lifted the stay, allowing the state to go ahead that evening.
In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers was called off after executioners could not find a vein for a backup IV. Before Tennessee, Strada had overseen problem-hit executions in Arizona.
Pike is the only woman on Tennessee's death row. Had the execution succeeded, she would have been the first woman put to death in the state in more than 200 years.
At 18, Pike and two others tortured and killed fellow student Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a Knoxville job training programme. Sentenced to death in 1996, her lawyers cite her age, abuse and mental illness.