NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s prison commissioner is resigning, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday, marking the first major leadership change since the state’s failed execution of Christa Pike left her unconscious and on a ventilator in a hospital.
Frank Strada, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction, will leave his post later this month, Lee said.
Strada said his resignation was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” as an independent investigation examines what occurred Wednesday, when the state administered two doses of a lethal drug but failed to carry out Pike’s execution.
“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 in a statement.
Pike was transported to a hospital, where she remained unconscious and on a ventilator in the hours afterward, according to a court filing submitted by her attorneys Friday.
Hospital personnel were working to save Pike’s life and, as of late Thursday, attempting to remove the effects of two doses of pentobarbital, the drug Tennessee uses in executions, her lawyers said.
The botched execution has prompted demands for answers from advocates on both sides of the death penalty debate. Lee ordered an independent review and suspended all upcoming executions. Strada, however, said he believed the state had “carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol.”
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Pike’s attorneys said they welcomed Strada’s resignation 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,” the four-member legal team said. “We hope the governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system.”
Pike’s lawyers said they believed a problem with the intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital to enter her body rather than her bloodstream.
Strada became head of the Correction Department in January 2023 after serving as deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections. In late 2024, he announced that Tennessee would revise its lethal injection procedure and rely solely on pentobarbital.
The Tennessee Department of Correction says four people have been executed in the state since 2025.
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed classmate Colleen Slemmer during a jealous rage. She later became one of the youngest women sent to death row.
