Tennessee prison chief oversaw four other 'botched' executions before Christa Pike's failed lethal injection, lawyers say

Tennessee Department of Correction commissioner Frank Strada is facing scrutiny after the failed execution of Christa Pike, 50, on Wednesday evening. According to The Guardian, Pike became the first death row prisoner in the US known to survive being injected with lethal drugs.

What happened during the execution

Witnesses said Pike could be heard choking and struggling roughly an hour after receiving her first injection of pentobarbital, a sedative. When a second dose also failed to kill her, she was hospitalized in critical condition. Pike's lawyers described the process as 'cruel and torturous', and one death penalty expert called it the worst botched execution in modern history.

The governor's response

Tennessee's Republican governor, Bill Lee, has suspended executions in the state until the end of the year and ordered an independent inquiry, calling the case 'deeply disturbing'. However, when pressed by a reporter about Strada's track record, Lee said that, as far as he knew, the department had followed the protocol exactly as outlined.

Strada's record in Arizona and Tennessee

Per The Guardian's reporting, Strada also oversaw a botched execution attempt in Tennessee in May, when officials spent over an hour failing to locate a vein in Tony Carruthers, forcing the procedure to be called off. Earlier, as a deputy prison director in Arizona, Strada oversaw three 2022 executions that experts and attorneys described as prolonged and botched. In the case of Clarence Dixon, the execution team struggled for about 40 minutes to place an IV, eventually making an incision near his groin. Frank Atwood, 66, who had a degenerative spinal condition, had to help executioners locate a vein himself. And in Murray Hooper's case, officials struggled to find a vein and had to insert a catheter in his groin.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that studies capital punishment, classified all three Arizona executions as 'botched'. Dale Baich, an attorney who represented Arizona death row prisoners, said the repeated difficulty finding veins suggested the execution team had not been properly vetted. A 2023 court declaration from Arizona's corrections director acknowledged 'several critical issues', including inadequate knowledge and expertise among those involved.

Despite this record, Lee appointed Strada to lead Tennessee's prison system in early 2023, at a time when the state itself was dealing with its own lethal-injection scandal involving protocol violations. Attorney Kit Thomas said Strada weakened training requirements after taking over — execution team members were previously required to practice catheterization using saline, a requirement that was later eliminated under new guidelines. After Strada left Arizona, that state increased its IV team size and strengthened training, but Tennessee has made no similar changes under his leadership. Tennessee's Department of Correction declined to comment on Strada's record, and the governor's office did not respond to inquiries.