Tennessee corrections commissioner to resign after botched execution
Tennessee's prison system head Frank Strada will step down following a failed lethal injection of inmate Christa Pike, prompting an independent review ordered by Governor Bill Lee.
Governor Bill Lee announced Saturday that Frank Strada, the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction, will resign later this month after a botched execution of inmate Christa Pike. Strada said in a statement that his departure is "in the best interest of Tennesseans" while an independent review investigates the Wednesday incident in which two doses of pentobarbital were administered but failed to cause death.
Pike was taken to a hospital, placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious, according to her attorneys' court filing. Hospital staff worked to clear the pentobarbital from her system. Pike’s lawyers allege that improperly placed IV lines caused the drug to enter her body tissue rather than her bloodstream.
"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.
The governor has ordered an independent review, and Strada maintains that the state "carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol." Strada, who assumed leadership of the department in January 2023 after serving as deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, announced a change to the state's lethal injection protocol in late 2024, limiting it to pentobarbital.
Christa Pike, who was 18 at the time of the 1993 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer, became one of the youngest women on Tennessee's death row.