Tennessee’s Prisons Chief Steps Down After a Lethal Injection Fails Twice

Christa Pike, sentenced to death in 1996, was to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday. The attempt failed twice. She survived and was taken to a Nashville-area hospital.

On Saturday, Gov. Bill Lee said Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will step down this month. Lee accepted the resignation and has ordered an independent review of Wednesday.

Strada said the department followed its established protocol, and that stepping aside is in the best interest of Tennesseans while the review asks what happened. The state is standing on both lines: the procedure was followed, and the commissioner is leaving because of the result.

Lee has called off the other executions still scheduled for 2026. Pike’s has been delayed until at least next year. A protocol paused for the rest of the year is the story, not a side note.

Her lawyers called the resignation justified, and said it does nothing for her now. They have asked a court to make the department preserve the evidence from Wednesday. The department says it followed the steps the attorney general’s office had already approved.

Read in order, the record is short. The injection failed twice. Pike is in hospital. Strada leaves this month. The rest of this year’s executions are not going ahead.