Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada resigned after an attempt to execute Christa Pike failed. Governor Bill Lee said Strada would leave his post at the end of the month and that he had accepted the resignation.
Lee announced that an interim commissioner would be appointed to lead the department. Strada said he believed the department had followed established procedures, but that stepping down while the independent review was underway would be in Tennessee’s best interest.
Two attempts to administer the drugs failed
Pike, who was sentenced to death, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday. The procedure was halted after two attempts to administer the execution drug proved unsuccessful.

Pike’s attorneys said in a court filing submitted Friday that their client was in critical condition, unconscious and on a ventilator at a hospital in the Nashville area.
The attorneys also argued that the pentobarbital used in the execution attempt entered tissue instead of the bloodstream because the intravenous line was improperly placed.

Tennessee suspends executions through the end of the year
Governor Lee launched an independent review to examine how the failed execution attempt unfolded. Lee announced that the remaining executions in Tennessee had also been suspended through the end of the year.
Christa Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.