Tennessee prisons official resigns after Christa Pike’s failed US execution

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will leave his post later this month, Governor Bill Lee said, following a failed execution this week that left inmate Christa Pike hospitalized. Lee described Strada’s decision to step down as necessary in the wake of the incident and thanked him for his service, while not naming a successor. Strada, who has led the department for three years and previously served as a senior corrections official in Arizona, said he was resigning "in the best interest of Tennesseans" and welcomed the independent review announced to determine what occurred during Pike’s execution. In his statement he defended his department’s handling of the case and said he would cooperate with the inquiry. Pike was taken from prison to a hospital after surviving two administrations of pentobarbital, the drug Tennessee uses for executions. In court filings her attorneys said medical staff had to intubate and place her on a ventilator while working to remove the drug from her system, and they alleged that problems with the IV lines caused the drug to enter her body improperly. Pike’s lawyers called Strada’s resignation "justified" but said it did not address the wider failures that affected their client. Governor Lee has suspended all executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year while a full, independent review investigates the execution’s handling and the state's death penalty procedures.