The commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction has resigned days after the state's botched execution attempt of murderer Christa Pike, leaving her hospitalized in critical condition.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Commissioner Frank Strada's resignation on Oct. 3 and said he will step down this month.
“Commissioner Strada has served with integrity, and I appreciate his willingness to put the interests of Tennesseans first during this difficult moment,” Lee said in a statement. “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.”
Pike was to be
put to death on Sept. 30 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The execution descended into chaos when Pike, 50, survived two rounds of lethal injection drugs and was rushed to a hospital. Her attorneys on Oct. 2 said she was unconscious and on a ventilator at a Nashville-area hospital.
Lee said after Pike survived that he was launching an independent investigation into what went wrong and halted all executions in the state for the remainder of 2026.
In a statement shared by Lee's office, Strada said stepping down was "in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward."
Calls for Strada's resignation have been mounting as renewed scrutiny into his record overseeing prisons in both Tennessee and Arizona, where he was deputy director of Arizona's Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry during three lethal injection executions that were criticized for serious problems.
The agency overhauled its protocols after Strada's departure in 2023.
A review that year led by Ryan Thornell, who became director just after Strada left the agency, found "severely lacking" documentation interfered with officials' ability to make informed decisions about procedures. Execution drugs were stored in unlabeled and unmarked jars, and reporting inconsistencies made it unclear which medical procedures were used in past executions, the review found.
Strada was appointed as commissioner of the Department of Correction in Tennessee by Lee in January 2023.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former Arizona prisons official resigns after botched execution
