Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has selected former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to oversee an independent investigation into the failed execution of death row prisoner Christa Pike. The announcement came Saturday, just hours after the state’s corrections commissioner resigned.
Stanton, who led the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee from 2010 to 2017, will examine whether the Tennessee Department of Correction followed required procedures during Pike’s execution attempt, Lee’s office said.
This is not Stanton’s first review of Tennessee’s execution practices. In 2022, he headed an independent investigation after state officials discovered that drugs used in previous lethal injections had not undergone proper testing, according to WKRN-TV.
That finding prompted Lee to suspend all executions in Tennessee for the rest of 2022, including the scheduled execution of death row inmate Oscar Smith. The pause ultimately remained in effect for nearly three years.
Following Stanton’s earlier investigation, Tennessee officials significantly overhauled the state’s execution procedures before resuming executions in February 2025, the governor’s office said.
Under the revised lethal injection process, officials use one dose of pentobarbital rather than the previous three-drug combination, which included a paralytic. Pentobarbital was also administered during Pike’s execution attempt Wednesday.
The updated protocol was approved by Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, who announced Saturday that he would leave his post following the botched execution.
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Pike was convicted of the 1995 killing of a teenage classmate. She remains alive but is unconscious, intubated and dependent on a ventilator, her attorneys said.
Despite his resignation, Strada said he still believes the corrections department fulfilled its duties under the approved procedures.
He nevertheless described the independent investigation as “entirely appropriate and necessary,” adding that he would cooperate fully to help establish what happened, WKRN reported.
Lee’s office said Stanton will also assess whether changes are needed to ensure Tennessee’s execution protocol remains lawful and effective.
A group of Tennessee death row prisoners filed a lawsuit after the state announced the single-drug method in December 2024. The inmates argued that the revised protocol could violate constitutional protections.
Opponents of capital punishment also questioned the approach. They noted that the federal government had stopped using a single dose of pentobarbital for lethal injections, reportedly because of uncertainty over whether the drug could cause severe pain and suffering, WKRN reported.
Lee’s decision came days after Pike received two doses of the lethal drug and survived. She was the first woman Tennessee had planned to execute in more than two centuries. The state has also faced another failed execution attempt this year.
Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of murder and kidnapping, was scheduled to die by lethal injection in May. Lee halted the execution and granted him a one-year reprieve after prison officials could not locate a vein for a backup IV as required under the state’s protocol.