Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) announced Saturday that Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada is stepping down following the state’s failed attempt to execute death row inmate Christa Pike.
Strada said his resignation was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” as an independent review examines what happened Wednesday, when the state administered two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital but failed to kill Pike.
“I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary, and I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred,” Strada said.
Pike, 50, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy in the 1996 killing of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 when she brutally killed Slemmer and 20 when she was sentenced to death. Her then-17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who assisted in the killing, was sentenced to life in prison. Pike was the youngest woman on Tennessee’s death row.
Officials administered two lethal injections of pentobarbital, a drug that depresses the central nervous system, during Wednesday evening’s scheduled execution. Pike survived both doses and was taken to the emergency room for medical treatment.
Her attorney, Randy Spivey, said Thursday that Pike was receiving “lifesaving medical care” and described the execution attempt as “torturous.”
Spivey said Pike’s attorneys had repeatedly warned the state and courts that her underlying medical conditions, including a blood-clotting disorder, could make a lethal injection execution unusually prolonged and painful.
“It was also predictable,” Spivey said. “Christa’s legal team told the state of Tennessee and the court that her medical conditions would cause her to suffer an agonizing death. The state and the court dismissed Christa’s concerns. The governor’s call for an independent review does not go far enough.”
In a January appeal after Pike’s execution date was set, her attorneys argued that her medical conditions created a “substantial risk” that she would experience “unnecessary superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace.”
Pike has not denied killing Slemmer; her attorneys have instead argued that her age at the time of the crime, mental illness, and extensive history of childhood sexual abuse should have received greater consideration in determining her sentence.
Tennessee changed its lethal injection protocol in 2024, abandoning its previous three-drug method in favor of the single drug pentobarbital, which slows down a person’s nervous system.
Pike’s case is not Tennessee’s first failed execution. In 2022, the state failed to execute Oscar Smith after officials discovered problems with the execution drugs and acknowledged they had not been properly tested.
The state has faced other problems with lethal injections. In May, officials postponed the execution of Tony Carruthers after they were unable to establish a vein through which to administer the lethal drug. Lee granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve.
Pike’s attorneys said Strada’s resignation was justified but would not address what Pike endured.
“The resignation of Commissioner Strada is justified, but it does nothing to help Christa now,” they said. “What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person.”
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The attorneys said they hoped the governor’s independent review would “expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system.”
Lee has ordered a third-party review of Pike’s failed execution and said Tennessee’s remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
