NEED TO KNOW
- Christa Pike has not regained consciousness since Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her on Sept. 30
- Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will resign this month
- Gov. Bill Lee has paused executions for the rest of 2026 and ordered an independent review of Pike’s failed execution
Christa Pike has still not regained consciousness following Tennessee’s failed attempt to execute her, as the head of the state’s prison system prepares to step down.
Pike, 50, remained hospitalized on a ventilator and critically ill on Sunday, Oct. 4, her attorney Stephen Ferrell said during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper.
Asked whether Pike had been conscious at any point since the Sept. 30 execution attempt, Ferrell said, “Not that I am aware of, no.”
Meanwhile, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will resign this month, Gov. Bill Lee announced on Saturday, Oct. 3, according to the Associated Press.
Strada’s departure marks the first major personnel change at the department since officials were unable to execute Pike despite administering two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital.
Strada said in a statement that resigning was “in the best interest of Tennesseans” while an independent review of the failed execution is conducted, according to the AP. He maintained that the department had “carried out its responsibilities in accordance with the established protocol.”
Pike’s legal team welcomed Strada’s departure but said it “does nothing to help Christa now.”
“What happened to her Wednesday reflects a systemic failure that goes far beyond any one person,” her four-lawyer team said, per the AP. “We hope the governor’s call for a full, independent review will expose the profound problems within Tennessee’s entire death penalty system.”
Lee also announced that former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton will lead the review into what happened during Pike’s execution attempt. Stanton previously conducted a review after Lee called off an execution in 2022 and found that Tennessee had failed to comply with its own lethal injection process, according to the AP.
As PEOPLE previously reported, Ferrell said Sunday that Pike’s long-term prognosis remains unclear.
“We don’t really know the prognosis yet and may not know for several days,” Ferrell said.
“It remains to be seen what the future is,” he continued. “I think one of the main things that will leave this up in the air for a while is the fact that we don’t know what the prognosis is — as in, the long-term prognosis. If she recovers — she may not fully recover.”
“And there may be issues about her competence. We just don’t know any of this,” he added.
Ferrell said the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, which would typically seek another execution date, had “not given us any indication as to what their intentions will be.”
He said he believes Lee should commute Pike’s death sentence to life in prison “at the very least,” adding that she has already “endured a torturous attempt at executing her.”
Lee has paused executions in Tennessee for the remainder of 2026 and ordered an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Pike’s failed execution.
“The governor has appropriately called for an investigation,” a spokesperson for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office previously told PEOPLE. “We need to know what happened.”
Pike survived the execution attempt on Wednesday, Sept. 30, after receiving two doses of pentobarbital, a drug that suppresses breathing and cardiovascular function in high enough doses.
As PEOPLE previously reported, Pike’s attorneys said in a court filing that both of her arms were “swollen, burned and blistered” when she arrived at the hospital and alleged that seven needles were inserted during the execution attempt.
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Her attorneys have said they believe problems with the IV lines caused the pentobarbital to enter the tissue in her arms rather than properly flowing into her bloodstream.
According to Pike’s attorneys, she could be heard crying, whimpering and breathing loudly during the procedure. At one point, she said, “My arm feels like it’s about to burst open,” and later asked, “Does this happen like that?”
Attorney Randy Spivey said during an Oct. 1 news conference that Pike had been cooperative as the execution team repeatedly attempted to establish IV access, at one point telling them, “please try here, please try here.”
The failed execution was the second time since May that Tennessee was unable to carry out a scheduled execution.