Tennessee prison chief Frank Strada resigns after botched execution

The head of Tennessee’s prison system is resigning after the state’s failed lethal injection of convicted murderer Christa Pike left her hospitalized and on a ventilator.

Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will step down this month, Gov. Bill Lee said Saturday.

In a statement distributed by the governor’s office, Strada said stepping aside was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” while an independent review examines what went wrong during the botched 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.

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Lee said Strada served with integrity, adding that he appreciates his “willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment.”

“I have accepted his decision to step down and am grateful for his commitment to ensuring a smooth leadership transition,” Lee said.

Pike, 50, was injected with two doses of pentobarbital on Wednesday night, and prison officials used at least seven needles while trying to find a vein.

Pike was heard crying, whimpering, and breathing loudly during the execution, according to a Friday court filing from her lawyers.

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She was taken to the hospital, where she had to be intubated and put on a ventilator, her lawyers said.

In a statement obtained by The Associated Press, Pike’s four-person legal team celebrated the departure of Strada but said it wasn’t enough.

“What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,” they said. “We hope the governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system.”

Her lawyers said in the court filing that the prison staff did not correctly place the IV lines. They also claimed staff failed to realize that one of Pike’s veins burst, leading to at least some of the pentobarbital entering her body.

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Strada became commissioner of Tennessee’s correction department in January 2023 after serving as deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections. In late 2024, he announced that Tennessee would solely use pentobarbital as its execution drug.

Four people have been executed in Tennessee since last year, according to the department.

On the evening of Jan. 12, 1995, Christa Pike, then 18, lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus.

Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, then spent 30 minutes torturing Slemmer, while 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson served as a lookout.

According to her confession to authorities, Pike killed Slemmer because she believed she was interested in her boyfriend romantically.

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Even though Shipp directly participated in the murder, he was ineligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time. He was sentenced to life in prison with parole, which he has not yet received.

Peterson, who cooperated with investigators and testified against Pike and Shipp, was given 460 days in jail after pleading guilty to being an accessory.

Pike was the only one in the case sentenced to death and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. She would have been the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.