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.

Tennessee 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 said that “it does nothing to help Christa now.”

“What happened to her on Sept. 30 reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,” her legal team told 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 he gone 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.

Pike’s execution day was full of legal back-and-forth, which included a federal appeals court pausing her 10 a.m. execution until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled at 6 p.m. that the state could move forward.

But about 90 minutes later, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) IV team allegedly had issues gaining IV access to her veins and used at least seven needles in the process. 

“At one point, Ms. Pike herself offered guidance on where the IV team could attempt access; one needle was bent in a 90-degree angle when it was removed,” court documents filed on Oct. 2 by Pike’s lawyers revealed.

There was a moment when Pike even said, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” and at a separate time, she asked, “Does this happen like that?”

Pike’s lawyers accused the TDOC of failing to correctly place or maintain IV lines during the execution.

Tennessee Department of Correction defended its process in a brief statement, stating that it “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.”

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 respond to requests for comment.