Tennessee’s prison chief has resigned just days after the state’s failed attempt to execute the killer Christa Pike, leaving the prisoner alive and requiring hospital treatment after surviving two lethal injection jabs.
Frank Strada’s resignation was announced by Governor Bill Lee this afternoon, following the "botched" lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville this week.
Mr Lee has suspended all further executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year, and ordered an independent review into what happened.
“I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment,” Mr. Lee said in a statement addressing the resignation of Mr Strada.
He added: "I have accepted his decision to step down and am grateful for his commitment to ensuring a smooth leadership transition.”
Pike, 50, was due to be executed for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Knoxville Job Corps vocational centre.
She was administered two doses of pentobarbital during Wednesday’s execution attempt, but shockingly remained alive.
Reports said as many as seven needles were used, including one that bent while being removed from her arm.
By Thursday evening, Pike remained unconscious and on a ventilator after being taken to hospital by ambulance.
Tori Gessner, a reporter for Nashville news website WKRN who has witnessed five executions, told Tonight With Andrew Marr that Pike was still "talking and singing" after the first attempt.
"She did mention a couple things," she said, adding: "She asked if this was supposed to happen this way during the first round of the pentobarbital going into her system?
"And she mentioned her arm burning, but it seemed to me like she was sleeping. That's what it looked like, at least with the snoring. And you could still see her, her chest rising and falling as if she was breathing."
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Ms Gessner said the execution appeared to be proceeding normally before officials closed the curtains.
"They reopened. They try the process all over again, which is extremely unusual. That didn't work.
"They closed the curtains at 8.05pm. So we're sitting in this room for hours, and then we continue to hear her snoring until almost 9pm and are escorted out."
She said witnesses realised something was wrong after the expected period of 20 to 30 minutes for the drugs to take effect had passed.
Mr Strada previously said he believed officials had followed Tennessee’s execution protocol, and would cooperate with the investigation.
“I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred,” Mr. Strada said.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it had followed "every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,
"The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility," the statement concluded.
Pike’s lawyers are seeking to have her death sentence commuted, having previously highlighted her history of childhood violence, neglect and sexual abuse, as well as diagnoses of bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"The 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists," her lawyers wrote.
"Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions, receives proper treatment for her mental illness, and provides for and guides fellow incarcerated women."
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, lured Slemmer into a wooded area and killed her. Both were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996.
Tennessee had previously executed 17 people. Pike would have been the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.
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Tennessee’s prison chief has resigned just days after the state’s failed attempt to execute the killer Christa Pike, leaving the prisoner alive and requiring hospital treatment after surviving two lethal injection jabs.
Frank Strada’s resignation was announced by Governor Bill Lee this afternoon, following the "botched" lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville this week.
Mr Lee has suspended all further executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year, and ordered an independent review into what happened.
“I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment,” Mr. Lee said in a statement addressing the resignation of Mr Strada.
He added: "I have accepted his decision to step down and am grateful for his commitment to ensuring a smooth leadership transition.”
Pike, 50, was due to be executed for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Knoxville Job Corps vocational centre.
She was administered two doses of pentobarbital during Wednesday’s execution attempt, but shockingly remained alive.
Reports said as many as seven needles were used, including one that bent while being removed from her arm.
By Thursday evening, Pike remained unconscious and on a ventilator after being taken to hospital by ambulance.
Tori Gessner, a reporter for Nashville news website WKRN who has witnessed five executions, told Tonight With Andrew Marr that Pike was still "talking and singing" after the first attempt.
"She did mention a couple things," she said, adding: "She asked if this was supposed to happen this way during the first round of the pentobarbital going into her system?
"And she mentioned her arm burning, but it seemed to me like she was sleeping. That's what it looked like, at least with the snoring. And you could still see her, her chest rising and falling as if she was breathing."
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Ms Gessner said the execution appeared to be proceeding normally before officials closed the curtains.
"They reopened. They try the process all over again, which is extremely unusual. That didn't work.
"They closed the curtains at 8.05pm. So we're sitting in this room for hours, and then we continue to hear her snoring until almost 9pm and are escorted out."
She said witnesses realised something was wrong after the expected period of 20 to 30 minutes for the drugs to take effect had passed.
Mr Strada previously said he believed officials had followed Tennessee’s execution protocol, and would cooperate with the investigation.
“I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred,” Mr. Strada said.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said it had followed "every step of the state’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office,
"The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening. Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility," the statement concluded.
Pike’s lawyers are seeking to have her death sentence commuted, having previously highlighted her history of childhood violence, neglect and sexual abuse, as well as diagnoses of bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"The 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists," her lawyers wrote.
"Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions, receives proper treatment for her mental illness, and provides for and guides fellow incarcerated women."
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, lured Slemmer into a wooded area and killed her. Both were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996.
Tennessee had previously executed 17 people. Pike would have been the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.
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