Prison chief stands down over botched execution after killer Christa Pike, 50, survived lethal sedatives and was left on life support

Published: 18:11 EDT, 3 October 2026 | Updated: 19:59 EDT, 3 October 2026 The head of Tennessee's prison service has resigned just days after presiding over the bungled execution of convicted killer Christa Pike.The US state's Commissioner of Correction Frank Strada stepped down on Saturday following the failed killing of the 50-year-old, who survived two lethal doses of the sedative pentobarbital last Wednesday.Pike was left in critical condition, according to her lawyers, and is on life support in hospital and has burns on her arms around the injection sites.Mr Strada said his department had carried out its responsibilities 'in accordance with established protocol', but added that 'stepping aside is in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward. I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary and I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred.'Pike was the first woman to face execution in Tennessee in two centuries and had begged to be put to death by an all-female firing squad after her lawyers warned her 'tiny veins' meant there was no guarantee a lethal injection could be successfully administered. Instead, she was subjected to an agonising ordeal using at least seven needles that lasted almost an hour.Witnesses claimed one of the needles looked bent when it was removed from her arm and said they heard what sounded like snoring in the execution chamber before they were ordered to leave.The extraordinary possibility now looms that, should Pike recover, she could face the death chamber for a second time. Christa Gail Pike, on death row, appeared in court in 2012 to fight a conviction in a 2001 attack on an inmateHer lawyers have already launched an appeal seeking to have her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.Mr Strada previously worked for Arizona's Department of Corrections where he oversaw three lethal injections that were all later criticised for being 'improperly' administered.Pike was just 18 when she was convicted of the brutal murder of fellow student Colleen Slemmer, 19, in Knoxville.Her botched execution led to Tennessee's governor Bill Lee suspending all executions in the state and has prompted renewed scrutiny of America's use of capital punishment.Pike's lawyers called her case 'inhuman and barbaric'.It emerged last night that instead of having the final meal offered to prisoners awaiting execution Pike asked the prison to use the money to buy pizzas for the homeless.