The head of Tennessee’s prison system will step down this month following the failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike, which left her unconscious and on a ventilator, state officials say.
Governor Bill Lee announced on Saturday that Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada had offered his resignation and that it had been accepted.
The state has ordered an independent review of the execution attempt and suspended all executions scheduled for the rest of 2026.
Strada said he believed prison staff followed established protocol but was stepping aside as the review proceeded.
Lee praised Strada’s service and said an interim commissioner would be named later.
What happened during the execution attempt
Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on September 30.
Officials administered two doses of pentobarbital, but the attempt did not kill her.
She was taken to hospital, where her lawyers said she remained unconscious, intubated and on a ventilator.
Pike’s attorneys have alleged that problems with the intravenous lines meant the drug was not properly delivered into her bloodstream.
They also said her doctors had warned state officials that her small veins and thrombocytosis, a blood disorder, could make it difficult to establish IV access.
The Department of Correction said after the attempt that it had followed the state’s established execution protocol.
The investigation is being led by former US Attorney Ed Stanton, according to the Associated Press.
Pike’s lawyers have asked officials to preserve records and other evidence relating to the procedure.
A second failed execution in Tennessee this year
Pike’s case is the second time this year Tennessee has failed to carry out an execution after beginning preparations.
In May, officials halted the execution of Tony Carruthers after they were unable to establish a second IV line.
Strada has led the Tennessee Department of Correction since 2023.
His departure comes amid questions about the state’s execution procedures and the circumstances surrounding Pike’s treatment.
Pike was convicted in the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer
Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, her classmate at a Job Corps centre in Knoxville.
Pike was 18 at the time. Prosecutors said she and her boyfriend lured Slemmer to a secluded area and killed her, believing Slemmer was a romantic rival.
The future of Pike’s death sentence remains unclear.
Her attorneys have asked Lee to commute it to life imprisonment.
As of Sunday, they said she had not regained consciousness and that it could take days before doctors could assess her prognosis.
