Failed execution in the USA: head of the Tennessee Department of Corrections resigns

afp | The unprecedented failure of the execution of US death row inmate Christa Pike has personnel consequences: the head of the penitentiary authority in the state of Tennessee submitted his resignation. Governor Bill Lee announced on Saturday (local time) that head of the authority Frank Strada would be leaving office this month. Pike survived two injections of the normally fatal drug pentobarbital on Wednesday.

According to her lawyers, the 50-year-old was unconscious and was being ventilated in a hospital in a life-threatening condition. Pike was sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer. The case attracted national attention at the time because Slemmer's body was found with a pentagram on his chest, which is considered a satanic symbol.

Governor Lee thanked Chief Executive Strada for “his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans forward in a difficult moment.” At the same time, Lee stated: “I continue to believe that the Department of Corrections has fulfilled its obligations in accordance with the intended procedures.” Lee on Thursday suspended further executions in Tennessee until the end of the year and ordered an independent investigation.

Strada also said he remains confident that his agency has fulfilled its duties under current execution protocol. However, his resignation is in the best interest of the people of Tennessee during the investigation.

Pike was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday evening (local time) as the first woman in the state in more than 200 years - but nothing went as planned. As several eyewitnesses reported, Pike continued to breathe after the first lethal injection was administered.

She was then given a second injection of the powerful sleeping pill pentobarbital, which is said to paralyze the respiratory center and which in Germany is almost exclusively used to euthanize animals. Journalists present in the prison reported that the death row inmate's heavy breathing and snoring noises could be heard for an hour.

Pike's lawyers had previously objected to the execution protocol, arguing that it would cause unnecessary suffering due to Pike's small veins and a blood disorder. Attorney Randy Spivey said he saw seven needles in Pike's left arm alone while prison staff tried to insert an intravenous line. According to him, one of them was apparently bent when it was pulled out again after a failed attempt.

Another lawyer, Stephen Ferrell, said medical experts had warned that needles could slip or puncture veins, allowing the deadly toxins to enter arm tissue rather than the bloodstream.

In a court filing by lawyers, they say the hospital is trying to remove the pentobarbital from Pike's body. Accordingly, the agent is a corrosive substance that causes injuries to skin, tissue and veins. Pike's arms were "swollen, burned and blistered" when he arrived at the hospital.

Media representatives present at the execution attempt reported that Pike said after the injection that her arm felt as if it would "split open." According to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), Pike is the first prisoner to survive being administered “lethal doses of execution drugs.”

Pike's lawyers again called on the governor to commute her sentence after the failed attempt. They had previously stated that Pike committed the crime when he was just 18 years old and suffered from mental health problems as a victim of long-term sexual abuse. Lee had refused a pardon and said he wanted to have lawfully imposed sentences carried out.

It was the second failed execution in Tennessee this year. In May, an execution was aborted after medical personnel were unable to puncture the condemned man's vein.

Since capital punishment was reauthorized in the United States in 1976, 18 women have been executed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. According to the DPIC, a total of 47 people were executed in the United States last year, the highest level since 2009. This year there were already 28. Only 27 US states still have the death penalty and 23 have abolished it.