Frank Strada, the head of Tennessee's prison system, will resign following a failed attempt to carry out the death penalty on convicted murderer Krista Pike. This was announced by Governor Bill Lee. According to the governor, the commissioner of the Department of Corrections will step down later this month. Strada himself stated that he made this decision in the interest of the state's residents while an independent investigation into the incident continues. The incident occurred on Wednesday during the execution of the death sentence. The convict was administered two injections of drugs intended to cause death; however, the execution did not take place — the 50-year-old woman remained alive. Determining the reasons for this unprecedented case will now be the main focus of the investigation. Authorities aim to establish why the procedure did not conclude as expected. According to Pike's attorneys, she was taken to the hospital after the incident. She is on a ventilator and remains unconscious. Krista Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Collin Slimmer. The investigation revealed that in 1995, when Pike was 18 years old, she, along with two accomplices, tortured and killed the girl near the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Had the death sentence been carried out, Pike would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. Women make up an extremely small percentage of those executed in the U.S. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1976, death sentences have been carried out on 18 women in the country. The investigation into the circumstances of the failed execution is ongoing. Its results are expected to determine the causes of the incident and potential consequences for the death penalty system in the state.
