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

The state’s governor said Frank Strada would step down as an independent review examines what went wrong.

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada speaks to the media in Nashville, Tennessee [File: George Walker IV/AP Photo]

The official in charge of the prison system in the US state of Tennessee has resigned just days after overseeing the botched execution of Christa Pike.

The state’s governor, Bill Lee, announced on Saturday that Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada would step down from his role later this month, a decision Lee described as necessary after the stunning failure.

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“Commissioner Strada has served with integrity, and I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment”, Lee said in a statement. “I have accepted his decision to step down and am grateful for his commitment to ensuring a smooth leadership transition”.

A replacement for Strada was not announced.

Strada, who started his role in Tennessee three years ago, previously served as a top official in Arizona’s corrections department where multiple executions on his watch faced complications. He said he was resigning “in the best interest of Tennesseans” as an independent review examines what went wrong.

“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 in a statement that defended his department’s handling of Pike’s execution.

Pike was transported from prison to hospital on Wednesday after surviving two injections of the drug pentobarbital, which Tennessee uses to execute prisoners.

Strada’s resignation was “justified”, Pike’s lawyers said in a statement. “But it does nothing to help Christa now.”

“What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,” they wrote. “We hope the Governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system.”

In a court filing on Friday, Pike’s lawyers said she had been placed on a ventilator and intubated as medical staff worked to clear the drug from her system. They argued problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.

“Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realise that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body,” they wrote in the filing.

Pike was 18 years old when she was sentenced to death for the torture and murder of another young woman in 1995, becoming one of the youngest women to be sent to death row.

Lee has suspended all executions for the remainder of the year while the state investigates.

州长表示，弗兰克·斯特拉达将辞职，同时将展开独立调查，查明究竟出了什么问题。

田纳西州惩教署署长弗兰克·斯特拉达在田纳西州纳什维尔向媒体发表讲话。[图片：乔治·沃克四世/美联社照片]

美国田纳西州监狱系统负责人克丽斯塔·派克死刑执行失败后仅几天便辞职。

田纳西州州长比尔·李周六宣布，田纳西州惩教署署长弗兰克·斯特拉达将于本月晚些时候卸任。李表示，在发生令人震惊的失败后，这一决定是必要的。

列表 1/3：美国女子克丽斯塔·派克死刑执行失败，注射死刑失败。

克丽斯塔·派克死刑执行失败案例（共 3 例，第 2 例）：注射死刑失败后接下来会发生什么？

律师称，克丽斯塔·派克在一次失败的死刑执行后昏迷不醒，靠呼吸机维持生命，这是名单上的第三条。

“斯特拉达专员一直以来都秉持正直的品格服务，我感谢他在这一艰难时刻将田纳西州人民的利益放在首位，”李在一份声明中表示。“我接受他辞职的决定，并感谢他致力于确保领导层平稳过渡。”

官方并未公布 Strada 的替代车型。

斯特拉达三年前开始在田纳西州任职，此前曾担任亚利桑那州惩教部门高级官员，在他任职期间，多起死刑执行都出现了问题。他表示，为了“田纳西州人民的最大利益”，他决定辞职，同时一项独立调查正在调查究竟出了什么问题。

斯特拉达在一份声明中为他的部门处理派克死刑的方式辩护说：“我认为这次审查完全恰当且必要，我期待尽我所能帮助查明究竟发生了什么。”

派克在被注射了两针戊巴比妥钠（田纳西州用这种药物处决囚犯）后，于周三从监狱被送往医院。

派克的律师在一份声明中表示，斯特拉达的辞职“合情合理”。“但这并不能帮助克丽斯塔渡过难关。”

他们写道：“她周三的遭遇反映出一个系统性的失败，这远远超出了任何个人的责任。我们希望州长呼吁进行全面、独立的审查，能够揭露田纳西州整个死刑制度中存在的深层次问题。”

派克的律师周五提交的法庭文件中称，她当时已被接上呼吸机并插管，医护人员正在努力清除她体内的毒品。他们辩称，静脉输液管路出现问题，导致戊巴比妥钠流入她的体内而非血液。

“显然，行刑队的任何成员都没有意识到静脉输液管的位置不正确，或者静脉已经破裂，戊巴比妥钠全部或部分进入了派克女士的体内，”他们在文件中写道。

1995 年，18 岁的派克因折磨和谋杀另一名年轻女子而被判处死刑，成为被判处死刑的最年轻的女性之一。

在州政府进行调查期间，李州长已暂停今年剩余时间的所有死刑执行。