Tennessee prison chief to resign after Christa Pike’s failed execution

The head of Tennessee's prison system has resigned in the first major shake-up since the stunning failed execution of Christa Pike, who is in critical condition after surviving two lethal injections. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who previously denied Pike clemency, has halted further executions through the rest of the year while a review is conducted. Issued on: 03/10/2026 – 19:24 1 min Reading time Share By: Tennessee prisons chief Frank Strada will leave his post this month, the state's governor has said.

© Mark Humphrey, AP archives The prison commissioner in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned over the botched execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike, Governor Bill Lee said Saturday. Lee said in a statement that commissioner Frank Strada would leave his post this month. Pike's lawyers say she is in critical condition, unconscious and on a ventilator in a hospital, after her execution by lethal injection went wrong on Wednesday.

It was the second failed execution in Tennessee this year. The state halted an execution in May after medical staff failed to tap a vein in the prisoner's arm. Lee said he thanked Strada for "his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment." In the same statement, Strada said, "I continue to believe the Department (of Correction) carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol." Lee, who previously denied Pike clemency, has halted further executions through the rest of the year while a review is conducted.

Had the drugs killed Pike, she would have been the first woman executed by the state in more than two centuries. In the United States, only 18 women have been executed since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. ( with AP) Advertising Keywords for this article USA death penalty.

Pike survived two lethal injections on Wednesday and is currently in critical condition in hospital. Image source, Tennessee Department of Corrections By Sakshi Venkatraman Published 3 October 2026, 17:18 BST Updated 1 hour ago The head of prisons in the US state of Tennessee is resigning after the failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike on Wednesday.

Governor Bill Lee announced the change on Saturday, sharing the news in a joint statement with Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada. Strada said that his stepping down is "in the best interests" of the state, and called the ongoing investigation into the incident "entirely appropriate and necessary".

Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, survived two injections and is now in critical condition at a Tennessee hospital as her lawyers seek to commute her sentence. "Commissioner Strada has served with integrity, and I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment," Lee said.

Lee has ordered an independent review into Pike's attempted execution and he halted all executions in the state for the year. Attorney's for Pike called the resignation "justified" but said "it does nothing to help Christa now".

"What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person," Pike's legal team wrote in a statement. "We hope the Governor's call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee's entire death penalty system." Pike is being treated at a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, where doctors are attempting to clear the drugs used during the execution from her body, according to legal filings.

She was injected with two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive. She was then sent to hospital in an ambulance.

While receiving the two doses, "she could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure", her lawyers said. As of Thursday night, she was unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator.

The state's Department of Correction has defended the method it used, saying "the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out". Authorities have not yet said whether they will try again to execute Pike.

They have also not offered an explanation for what went wrong. Her lawyers filed an emergency motion on Friday to preserve "any and all evidence" related to her failed execution.

Pike's attorneys previously warned that her medical history and anatomy – including thrombocytosis (a blood-clotting condition) and small veins – meant there was a risk she would experience "unnecessary" pain and suffering during a lethal injection. The attempted execution went ahead after multiple failed, last-minute legal challenges by Pike's lawyers.

The US Supreme Court rejected two separate efforts to stop the lethal injection. Tennessee's governor also denied a clemency request from Pike, the only woman on the state's death row.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and killed 19-year-old Slemmer in 1995. She was sentenced to death the following year after a media frenzy around the killing in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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