Tennessee prison commissioner resigns after failed execution of Christa Pike

Frank Strada, commissioner of Tennessee’s Department of Correction, will leave office after the failed execution of death row prisoner Christa Pike. Gov. Bill Lee announced the resignation on Saturday.

Strada will step down later in October as Tennessee begins an independent investigation into Wednesday’s failed procedure. Strada said leaving would allow the review to proceed in the state’s best interests.

Pike was injected with lethal drugs but survived. She became the first US death row prisoner known to have lived through an attempted execution by that method.

Attorney describes procedure inside chamber

Pike’s attorney Randy Spivey, who witnessed the procedure from the death chamber, called it “cruel and torturous.” He said he counted seven needles inserted into Pike’s left arm, including one that appeared bent when removed.

Pike’s attorneys said complications involving intravenous lines may have caused pentobarbital to enter tissue rather than her bloodstream. A court filing said that as of Friday she remained unconscious and on a ventilator in hospital.

Tennessee pauses execution scheduling

Lee ordered the independent review and paused the scheduling of executions in Tennessee after the incident. Pike’s attorneys and death penalty opponents called for greater transparency around the state’s execution procedures.

Lawyers alleged that Pike’s failed execution was the fifth problematic execution overseen by Strada in two states since 2022. That allegation remains subject to the independent investigation.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of teenage classmate Colleen Slemmer at a job training camp in Knoxville. Had the procedure succeeded, Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.