{"id":2127,"date":"2026-10-04T11:03:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T06:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2127"},"modified":"2026-10-04T11:03:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T06:03:54","slug":"tennessee-prison-chief-resigns-after-failed-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2127","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee prison chief resigns after failed execution"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>The head of the Tennessee Department of Correction will step down this month, state officials said on Saturday, days after \u200bconvicted murderer Christa Pike was left gravely ill from the \u200cstate\u2019s <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/government\/tennessee-execution-survivor-christa-pike-ventilator-attorneys-say-2026-10-02\/\">failed attempt to execute<\/a> her by lethal injection.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The botched execution on Wednesday left Pike unconscious, intubated and hooked to a mechanical ventilator to breathe, her lawyers wrote \u200bin a Friday court filing.<\/p>\n<p>It is the state\u2019s second \u200bfailed execution attempt this year, prompting Tennessee Governor Bill Lee \u2060to halt attempts to carry out the death penalty for the \u200brest of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Lee said on Saturday that Frank Strada has resigned as \u200bDepartment of Correction commissioner and would leave his position this month.<\/p>\n<p>The governor had ordered an independent review of the execution attempt at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in \u200bNashville, the state capital.<\/p>\n<p>Strada, in a separate statement, said that although \u200bhe believes his agency\u2019s personnel followed proper protocol, \u201cstepping aside is in the best interest \u200cof \u2060Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An interim commissioner will be announced later, the governor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommissioner Strada has served with integrity, and I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this \u200bdifficult moment,\u201d Lee \u200bsaid in a \u2060statement.<\/p>\n<p>Pike\u2019s lawyers have accused Correction Department officials of ignoring prior warnings from her doctors that her small veins \u200band a blood disorder called thrombocytosis would make placing \u200bintravenous \u2060lines especially difficult.<\/p>\n<p>Pike, 50, was convicted three decades ago of first-degree murder for her role in the torture and killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in \u20601995, \u200bwhen Pike was 18.<\/p>\n<p>Doctors were working to save \u200bPike\u2019s life and clear the drug pentobarbital from her system, her lawyers said on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head of the Tennessee Department of Correction will step down this month, state officials said on Saturday, days after \u200bconvicted murderer Christa Pike was left gravely ill from the \u200cstate\u2019s failed attempt to execute her by lethal injection. The botched execution on Wednesday left Pike unconscious, intubated and hooked to a mechanical ventilator to breathe, her lawyers wrote \u200bin a Friday court filing. It is the state\u2019s second \u200bfailed execution attempt this year, prompting Tennessee Governor Bill Lee \u2060to halt attempts to carry out the death penalty for the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}