Le chef de l'administration pénitentiaire du Tennessee démissionne après l'exécution ratée d'une femme (gouverneur)
The head of Tennessee's prison administration resigned following the botched execution of a condemned woman, Christa Pike, who survived two lethal injections, the governor of the southern state, Bill Lee, announced Saturday.
Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) chief Frank Strada "has submitted his resignation and will leave his post this month," the governor said in a statement sent to the media, without directly mentioning the failed execution Wednesday night of Christa Pike, who was to be the first woman put to death in more than 200 years in that state.
"I am grateful to Mr. Strada for putting the interests of Tennessee residents first during this difficult time," said Mr. Lee, who on Thursday announced a suspension of executions in the state and an independent investigation into the failed execution of Christa Pike.
"I continue to believe that the prison administration has fulfilled its obligations under the established protocol," the resigning chief stated, as quoted in the text.
"Resigning, however, is in the best interest of the people of Tennessee while the independent investigation takes place," he added, deeming the investigation "necessary."
The prison administration asserted late Wednesday night that it had strictly followed the protocol adopted since the resumption of executions in the state in May 2025, after a three-year moratorium. The governor had decreed the moratorium at the time due to deficiencies in the verification of the lethal solution administered to condemned prisoners.
Christa Pike, 50, has been unconscious and on life support since the botched execution, according to documents filed Friday by her lawyers in Tennessee court.
Her lawyers urged the governor to "commute Christa's sentence now".
"After enduring more than 20 years of solitary confinement and a full-blown attempt to kill her by lethal injection, Christa is the person who has suffered the greatest punishment in the entire history of the death penalty in the United States," one of them, Randy Spivey, argued on Thursday.
Bill Lee, who had already refused on Monday to commute his sentence, had previously suggested that he had not given up on the execution of Christa Pike.
"My responsibility is to enforce the sentences handed down by Tennessee juries, even when it's difficult, and that's exactly what we intend to do," he said Thursday.
AFP
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