Governor says Tennessee’s prisons chief is resigning after failed execution of Christa Pike

Pike was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious in a hospital, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday.Knoxville News Sentinel / USA Today via Reuters ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleOct. 3, 2026, 11:35 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 3, 2026, 12:44 PM EDT / Source: The Associated PressBy The Associated Press and Abigail BrooksNASHVILLE, Tenn. — The head of Tennessee’s prison system is resigning after the failed execution of Christa Pike, Gov. Bill Lee announced Saturday.

Lee said that Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will step down this month.

Strada said in a statement that stepping aside “is in the best interests” of the state as an independent review is carried out to determine why Pike’s execution failed Wednesday.

In response to the resignation news, Pike’s attorneys told NBC News in a statement that Strada’s stepping down was “justified, but it does nothing to help Christa now.”

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

Pike was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious in a hospital, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday.

Hospital staff, her lawyers said, were working to save Pike’s life and as of late Thursday were trying to clear the two doses of the drug that the state uses to execute prisoners.

“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,” they wrote in the court filing.

Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in a jealous rage. She later became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row.

ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleThe Associated PressThe Associated Press

Abigail BrooksAbigail Brooks is a producer for NBC News.