More than 30 years after a brutal killing put Christa Pike on death row, her failed execution has now led to a major shake-up in Tennessee. The state’s prisons chief has resigned, while Pike remains critically ill in a Nashville hospital.
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
Strada said that his stepping down is “in the best interests” of the state. He called the ongoing investigation into the incident “entirely appropriate and necessary,” as per BBC . “What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,” her legal team wrote in a statement.
“We hope the Governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system. US Supreme Court rejected two separate attempts to stop the execution. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee also denied Pike’s request for clemency. She was sentenced to death the following year after a media frenzy around the killing in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The head of prisons in the US state of Tennessee is resigning after the failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike on Wednesday.
