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

The head of the Tennessee prison system will step down following the botched execution of death row prisoner Christa Pike, state officials have announced.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee confirmed on Saturday that Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is leaving his post. The announcement comes after Pike survived two lethal injection procedures on Wednesday, leaving her hospitalized in critical condition.

In a statement delivered to CBS News, which was reported by BBC News, Strada indicated that resigning was the right path forward for the state. He also endorsed the official inquiry that has been launched into the failed lethal injection attempt, calling the investigation both entirely appropriate and necessary.

Pike was initially sentenced to capital punishment in 1996 following her conviction for the murder of Colleen Slemmer. Following Wednesday's failed execution attempt, she remains under intensive medical care at a hospital in Tennessee. In the wake of the incident, her legal representatives are currently working to have her death sentence commuted.

The departure of the correctional commissioner and the subsequent investigation place renewed scrutiny on the state's capital punishment protocols, as authorities review the circumstances surrounding the procedure.