All lethal injection executions in the state of Tennessee have been halted as the head of Tennessee’s prison system is set to step down following the botched execution Christa Pike
The head of Tennessee’s prison system is set to resign following the botched execution of Christa Pike.
State governor Bill Lee announced Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, will step down this month after Pike’s failed execution. In a statement Strada said resigning was “in the best interest of Tennesseans.”
An independent review is currently underway to determine what happened after the state failed to execute the woman. Strada: “I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary, and I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred.”
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has since halted all executions in the state and ordered an investigation into Pike’s unprecedented botched execution.
Pike was intubated and placed on a ventilator on Wednesday night (early Thursday, October 1, UK time), just hours after authorities failed to execute her.
The 50-year-old was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive despite the injections. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, and now her lawyers want her case and sentence commuted after the failed bid on her life.
She remains in hospital, unconscious and incubated on a ventilator as doctors work to save her life and clear the drug from her system completely. Court papers say that during the execution, prison officials used an IV line on Pike, trying to gain IV access via seven different needle points.
At one point, Pike herself offered guidance of where they could try.
“One needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed,” the filing states.
Her lawyers say Pike “could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure.”
The mother of Christa Pike’s victim has revealed she nearly took the law into her own hands after witnessing her daughter’s murderer survive the execution chamber this week.
Colleen’s mother, May, spoke to PEOPLE while driving back to Florida from Tennessee. During the interview, she revealed she nearly took justice into her own hands. May said: “”If I could have gotten in that room, I would have taken the box cutter and cut her up like she did Colleen. “
The heartbroken mother has now been deprived of over 30 years of memories. She stated: “Well, you miss a lot. You miss the holidays, you miss the birthdays, you miss Mother’s Days and stuff like that.”