Tennessee Prison Chief Resigns After Failed Christa Pike Execution

The commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Correction, Frank Strada, is resigning following the failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has announced.

Lee said on Saturday that Strada will resign this month as the state investigates what went wrong during the lethal injection attempt on September 30.

Pike, 50, remained unconscious and on a ventilator after two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital were administered during the execution attempt at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Her lawyers said the intravenous lines were improperly placed, causing the drug to enter surrounding tissue rather than properly entering her bloodstream. They said Pike suffered severe swelling, burns and blistering to both arms and was taken to hospital for emergency treatment.

The Tennessee Department of Correction, however, said it followed every step of the state’s established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.

The department said Pike was transported to an off-site medical facility following the failed execution attempt.

Lee has suspended further executions in Tennessee for the remainder of 2026 and ordered an independent review of the incident.

Strada, who was appointed commissioner in January 2023, said the department had followed its established procedures but accepted that an independent review was necessary.

Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at the University of Tennessee, when Pike was 18.

She was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries.

The failed execution has renewed scrutiny of Tennessee’s lethal injection procedures and comes after another botched execution in the state earlier this year.