Tennessee Corrections Commissioner to Resign After Failed Execution of Christa Pike

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will resign following the failed lethal injection of death row inmate Christa Pike, Governor Bill Lee announced on Saturday.

The change was announced in a joint statement from Lee and Strada. Strada said his departure was “in the best interests” of the state and described the ongoing investigation into the incident as “entirely appropriate and necessary.”

Pike, who was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer, survived two lethal injections on Wednesday and remains in critical condition at a Tennessee hospital. Her attorneys have asked for her sentence to be commuted.

“Commissioner Strada has served with integrity, and I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment,” Lee said.

The governor has ordered an independent review of Pike’s attempted execution and has halted all executions in Tennessee for the remainder of the year.

According to legal filings, doctors at a hospital in Nashville are working to remove the drugs administered during the execution from her body. Pike received two doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday but remained alive and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Her lawyers said she could be heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly throughout the procedure.

By Thursday night, she was described as unconscious, intubated, and on a ventilator.

The Department of Correction defended the method it used, saying its protocol “does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out.” Authorities have not yet explained what went wrong or indicated whether they will attempt another execution.

Pike’s lawyers filed an emergency motion on Friday seeking to preserve “any and all evidence” related to the failed execution. They had previously warned that her medical history and physical condition, including thrombocytosis and small veins, created a risk of “unnecessary” pain and suffering during a lethal injection.

The attempted execution proceeded after multiple last-minute legal challenges by Pike’s attorneys were unsuccessful. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected two separate efforts to stop the lethal injection, and Tennessee’s governor denied a clemency request from Pike, the only woman on the state’s death row.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured, and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. She was sentenced to death the following year after the case drew significant public attention in Knoxville.

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