Tennessee’s prison commissioner is resigning, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday, marking the first major leadership change since the state’s botched execution of Christa Pike left her unconscious on a hospital ventilator.
Frank Strada, who leads the Tennessee Department of Correction, will leave his post this month, Lee said.
In a statement, Strada said his resignation was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” as an independent investigation examines Wednesday’s failed execution, during which the state administered Pike two doses of a lethal drug without completing the procedure.
“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.
Pike was transported to a hospital, where she remained unconscious and on a ventilator in the hours afterward, according to a court filing from her attorneys Friday.
Lawyers said hospital staff were trying to save Pike’s life and, as of late Thursday, were working to remove the two doses of pentobarbital from her system. Tennessee uses the drug to execute prisoners.
The unprecedented failure has intensified demands for answers from supporters and opponents of the death penalty. Lee ordered an independent review and suspended all new executions, while Strada said he believed the state had “carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol.”
Pike’s attorneys welcomed Strada’s resignation 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,” the four-lawyer 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 legal team said it believed problems with the intravenous lines caused the pentobarbital to enter her body without reaching her bloodstream.
Strada became commissioner 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 to 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 her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, during a jealous rage. She later became one of the youngest women sent to death row.
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