Tennessee prison chief to resign after Christa Pike's failed execution

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced prison commissioner Frank Strada's resignation after death row inmate Christa Pike survived two lethal injections on Wednesday.

• Strada said his resignation is "in the best interests" of the state and called the investigation "entirely appropriate and necessary."
• Pike, 50, sentenced to death in 1996 for murdering Colleen Slemmer, survived two pentobarbital injections and remains in critical condition.
• Lee suspended all Tennessee executions until the end of the year and ordered an independent inquiry into the failed procedure.
• Lawyers said Pike's failed execution was the fifth botched execution under Strada across Tennessee and Arizona since 2022.
• Pike's lawyers argued that IV line problems caused the drug to enter her body instead of her bloodstream.
• The lawyers called the incident a systemic failure of the state's death penalty system.