Tennessee’s Department of Correction commissioner, Frank Strada, will resign this month following a failed execution attempt that left death row inmate Christa Pike unconscious and on a ventilator, Governor Bill Lee announced Saturday. The resignation marks the first major personnel change after two lethal injection attempts on Pike did not result in her death.

Pike, 50, was slated for execution on September 30 for the 1995 torture and murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer, a crime she committed at age 18. She had been set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries. However, medical staff were unable to carry out the execution successfully despite administering two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital. Following the procedure, Pike was transferred to a hospital where she remained unconscious and intubated, with her attorneys reporting significant injuries to both arms, including swelling, burns, and blisters. Hospital workers have been trying to remove the drug from her system.

The failed execution represents the second such incident in Tennessee this year. In May, the execution of Tony Carruthers was halted after correctional staff failed to establish a secondary intravenous line as required by protocol, leading to a gubernatorial reprieve delaying his execution for at least one year. Both incidents have fueled calls for reform and heightened scrutiny of the state’s lethal injection procedures.

Governor Lee indicated that Strada’s resignation was “in the best interests of Tennesseans” as an independent review, led by former U.S. attorney Ed Stanton, investigates the circumstances around Pike’s botched execution. Stanton previously conducted a review after the aborted Carruthers execution and found that Tennessee had not complied with its lethal injection protocols in that case.

Strada, who took over Tennessee’s Department of Correction in January 2023 after working in Arizona’s corrections system, has defended the department’s actions, stating he believed the execution was carried out in accordance with established protocols. However, Pike’s legal team has strongly contested the state’s position, alleging “systemic failure” in the execution process that goes beyond individual personnel. Her attorneys allege that problems with intravenous access resulted in pentobarbital entering Pike’s tissues instead of her bloodstream, contributing to the medical complications and the failure to carry out the death sentence.

Advocates for death penalty reform and some legal experts have seized on the incident to call for broader examination or abolition of capital punishment across Tennessee and the United States, citing concerns about execution botchings and competency in carrying out state-sanctioned deaths. Meanwhile, state officials have paused all executions until the review is complete.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has not provided further comment on Strada’s resignation or whether the aborted Carruthers execution influenced the decision. Pike’s case and the recent execution failures have reignited debate over the administration and ethics of the death penalty, prompting renewed demands for transparency and accountability in the state’s capital punishment system.