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The director of the Tennessee prison system resigned following the failed execution of Christa Pike, a woman sentenced to death for torturing and killing a classmate in 1995 when she was 18 years old.
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will step down this month, Governor Bill Lee announced Saturday. Other Republicans and elected officials had been urging a change in leadership.
Christa Pike, tras sobrevivir a dos inyecciones letales: está inconsciente e intubada en un hospital
It was the second time since May that Tennessee has failed to execute a death row inmate.
The governor also announced that former federal prosecutor Ed Stanton will lead a review of what happened in the execution chamber. Stanton was previously appointed to conduct a review after Lee canceled a different execution; in that case, he determined that Tennessee had failed to follow its own lethal injection process.
Strada noted in a statement that stepping down "is in the best interest" of the people of Tennessee while the review is underway. The state failed to execute Pike despite administering two doses of the drug pentobarbital.
"I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary, and I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what happened," Strada said.
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a jealous rage in 1995. She later became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row.
There was no response from Pike's lawyers on Saturday regarding an update on her condition in a hospital. They had revealed on Friday that she was on a ventilator and unconscious in the hours following the attempted execution and that hospital staff were attempting to clear the two doses of pentobarbital from her system.
The shocking failure has left both sides of the death penalty debate demanding answers. Lee has ordered an independent review and suspended all executions in the state. Strada noted that, in his view, the state "carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol."
Pike's legal team welcomed Strada's departure but added that it "does nothing to help Christa now."
"What happened to her on Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person," the four-lawyer team noted. "We hope the governor's call for a full and independent review will expose the deep problems within the entire Tennessee death penalty system."
[Publicidad]