Tennessee prison commissioner resigns after Christa Pike's botched execution - USA Today

The commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction has resigned days after the state's botched execution attempt of murderer Christa Pike, leaving her hospitalized in critical condition.

Gov. Bill Lee announced Commissioner Frank Strada's resignation on Oct. 3 and said he will step down this month.

“Commissioner Strada has served with integrity, and I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment,” Lee said in a statement. “I have accepted his decision to step down and am grateful for his commitment to ensuring a smooth leadership transition. I thank Commissioner Strada for his dedicated service to Tennessee and pray God’s blessings over him in the days ahead.”

Pike was to be put to death on Sept. 30 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The execution descended into chaos when Pike, 50, survived two rounds of lethal injection drugs and was rushed to a hospital. Her attorneys on Oct. 2 said she was unconscious and on a ventilator at a Nashville-area hospital.

Lee said after Pike survived that he was launching an independent investigation into what went wrong and halted all executions in the state for the remainder of 2026.

In a statement shared by Lee's office, Strada said stepping down was "in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward."

Calls for Strada's resignation have been mounting as renewed scrutiny into his record overseeing prisons in both Tennessee and Arizona, where he was a top official during three lethal injection executions that were criticized for serious problems, reported the Nashville Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Strada was appointed as commissioner of the Department of Correction in Tennessee by Lee in January 2023. He was previously deputy director for Arizona's Department of Corrections. He was hired in Tennessee after Lee halted executions in 2022, amid revelations that the state had repeatedly failed to follow its lethal injection protocol, the Tennessean reported.

"The resignation of Commissioner Strada is justified, but it  does nothing to help Christa now. What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person. We hope the Governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system," reads a statement shared by Pike's attorneys, Randy Spivey, Kelly Gleason, Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen.

The day of Pike's execution included last-minute legal maneuvering that delayed the lethal injection hours before it was given the go-ahead by the U.S. Supreme Court. Her lawyers said the process of establishing intravenous access was long and took multiple attempts.

Witnesses on Sept. 30 said they were ushered away and the curtains were closed even as Pike showed signs of life, continuing to breathe and snore after being injected.

Two rounds of pentobarbital were administered, per the state's execution protocols.

Pike was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator, and her arms were swollen, blistered and bruised from the lethal injection drugs, attorneys said in an emergency court motion on Oct. 2.

"Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms. Pike’s body," the emergency motion said.

Pike appears to be the first person to have survived after execution drugs entered her ​body, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.