The Tennessee prison chief who oversaw the failed execution of Christa Pike has resigned, Gov. Bill Lee announced.
Frank Strada, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction, submitted his resignation and will leave the post later this month, Lee said in a statement Saturday. The state plans to name an interim commissioner.
The leadership change follows Wednesday’s botched lethal injection, which left 50-year-old Pike on a ventilator after officials failed to execute her.
According to a court filing, medical staff used at least seven needles while trying to administer two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
“At one point, Ms Pike herself offered guidance on where the IV team could attempt access; one needle was bent at a 90-degree angle when it was removed,” the motion said.
Her attorneys said Pike received two sets of syringes containing the execution drug and could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing heavily during the procedure.
At one point, Pike reportedly said, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open.” She later asked, “Does this happen like that?”
As of Thursday night, Pike remained in critical condition at a Nashville-area hospital. Her attorneys said she was “intubated, on a ventilator, and remains unconscious.”
Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada has resigned and will leave his post later this month.
Medical staff used at least seven needles Wednesday while attempting to administer two lethal doses of pentobarbital to Pike.
Pike had spent 30 years on death row after being convicted of killing her Knoxville Job Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995.
Strada called his service as commissioner a “great honor” and said he continued to believe the department had fulfilled its responsibilities under established protocol.
“Even so, stepping aside is in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward,” he said.
“I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary, and I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred.”
Lee said Strada had “served with integrity” and praised his decision to put Tennessee residents’ interests first during the crisis.
“I have accepted his decision to step down and am grateful for his commitment to ensuring a smooth leadership transition. I thank Commissioner Strada for his dedicated service to Tennessee and pray God’s blessings over him in the days ahead,” Lee said.
Strada joined the state Department of Correction in 2023. Before that, he worked for Arizona’s corrections department, where he oversaw three lethal injections that were later criticized because of problems during the procedures, The Tennessean reported.
Pike’s legal team, meanwhile, contends that the Tennessee Department of Correction failed her.
Pike remains on a ventilator in the hospital. Her attorneys said both arms were swollen, burned and blistered when she arrived. She is pictured in court in 2001.
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Pike received a death sentence in 1996 and would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Her lawyers wrote that upon arrival at the hospital, both of her arms were swollen, burned, and blistered from the drug, which they compared to bleach or Drano, the chemical used to clear clogged household drains and pipes.
Pike’s attorneys said they believed problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to flow into her body instead of her bloodstream.
‘Apparently at no point did any member of the execution team realize that the IV lines were not correctly placed or that the veins had blown and that the pentobarbital was, in whole or in part, entering Ms Pike’s body,’ the lawyers wrote in the court filing.
They wrote that instead of ‘remedying this failure,’ they prepared and administered a backup set of pentobarbital syringes.
Her lawyers are seeking to have all of the evidence from her botched execution preserved so they can ensure accountability and protect her legal rights.
‘We are working closely with those closest to Christa to respect her wishes, safeguard her privacy and protect her rights as a patient during this extraordinarily difficult time,’ said Luke Ihnen, attorney for Pike with Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee.
‘We ask that the public and the media respect that privacy as well.’
The court filing emphasized that Pike previously filed an appeal claiming her execution would result in cruel and unusual punishment because of her individual physical characteristics, including thrombocytosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, and small veins.
Strada said it was a ‘great honor’ to serve in his position and that he still ‘believes the Department carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol’
The killer (pictured) had been on death row for 30 years since she was convicted of the 1995 murder of her Knoxville Jobs Corp classmate Colleen Slemmer
Pike received the death sentence in 1996 and would have been the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.
Instead, the case marks the second botched execution in Tennessee this year, and Governor Bill Lee halted any additional executions for the year and ordered ‘a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred.’
The state’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered ‘if the inmate is not deceased’ after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.
Tennessee announced in 2024 that it was switching from a three-drug series for lethal injections to the single drug pentobarbital.
In 1996, Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, stabbed and beat Slemmer to death on the University of Tennessee’s Agricultural campus.
The two carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest, and Pike took a piece of her skull as a souvenir, according to investigators.
Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the killing, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole due to his age.