The Executor is not the problem, the fact he has no sincerely effective method is the problem.
The resignation itself is not political. I don't care if both men affiliate with the same party or not, the point is the resignation does not solve the problem before the prison systems in regard to death row inmates.
Pope Leo opposes any death penalty. Any professional that does not carry out a death penalty killing is on the right side of their faith beliefs and that of the ethics of their professions.
October 1, 2026
By Devin Watkins
The facts of the matter are obvious, even Chirsta Pike predicted her disabling outcome. There aren't qualified people starting the IV that required with the fatal injection. Christa's arms are burned and badly bruised because the person attempting to find a blood vessel could not achieve that goal. Those administering the fatal cocktail believed they had a patent IV access regardless of the first failure. They tried to inject the killing drugs and failed to reach Christa's heart or any system organ, including her brain, that would have ended her life.
The resignation of the commissioner of the Department of Corrections is not the problem. The resignation is a symptom of the right wing politics of the day that demand convicted death row inmates to be killed. It is not necessary to have such executions in the face of complete disregard of the profound reality of the prison system in carrying out the deaths of incarcerated people.
There is a problem beyond the problem of the lethal injection. It is defined by an organization called, "The Innocence Project (click here)." If there were no innocent people found on death row there would less reason to end such a heinous criminal sentence. But, there are innocent people on death row and it has been proven. That should be enough for a moral USA to stop this indignity of death as a criminal punishment.
By Ed White
The head of Tennessee’s prison system (click here) is resigning, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday, the first major staff shake-up since Christa Pike’s stunning failed execution left her unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital.
Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, will step down this month, Lee said. Some of the governor’s fellow Republicans and other elected officials had been urging a change in leadership.
It was the second time since May that Tennessee has not been able to execute a prisoner who was seemingly moments away from death.
Strada said in a statement that resigning was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” while an independent review determines what happened Wednesday when the state failed to execute Pike despite administering two doses of a lethal drug, pentobarbital.
“I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary, and I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred,” Strada said.
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a jealous rage in 1995. She became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row....
