Tennessee’s Prison Chief Resigns After Failed Execution

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is resigning after a failed execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike.

Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, announced Strada’s resignation on Oct. 3 after Pike survived two lethal doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30.

The failed execution landed her at a Nashville-area hospital unconscious, intubated, and on a ventilator as of Oct. 1, court documents show.

Pike’s attorneys called the resignation “justified” but added that “it does nothing to help Christa now.”

“What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,” a statement by her legal team sent to The Epoch Times. “We hope the Governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system.”

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for killing her job-training program classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, and would have been the first woman in Tennessee to be executed in at least 200 years if the lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville went as planned.

Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion on Oct. 2 to preserve relevant evidence and a separate motion for an expedited hearing. A judge has not made an order regarding the expedited hearing as of Oct. 3. 

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction did not comment on the resignation and referred The Epoch Times to the governor’s office for more information.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This is a developing story and will be updated.