Tennessee’s top prison official who oversaw the botched execution of Christa Pike was previously in charge of executions in Arizona when the state experienced similar problems.
Pike, who was convicted of killing classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995, was administered two supposedly lethal doses of pentobarbital but survived. She was later taken to a hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
Tennessee’s top prison official is Commissioner Frank Strada, who was appointed in 2023 by Gov. Bill Lee to run the state’s prison system.
Before coming to Tennessee, Strada was deputy Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.
Dale Baich, an Arizona State University professor and former federal public defender, said Strada was with the department between 2020 and 2022. He oversaw executions and put together the execution teams.
Arizona executed three death row inmates in 2022, the first inmates killed by the state since 2014, when a botched execution left convicted murderer Joseph Wood gasping for nearly two hours.
“And we know that in 2022, there were three executions that were carried out. And two of them had significant IV access problems that occurred in the lead-up to the execution,” Baich said.
Baich said that’s the same issue that occurred in Tennessee with Pike and Tony Carruthers, whose execution was delayed earlier this year after medical workers failed to properly insert an IV.
“So there’s a history of incompetence,” Baich said.
Strada declined to comment through a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
“We do not have a comment at this time,” spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said.
Lee, the Tennessee governor, paused executions for the rest of the year and ordered a third-party investigation, according to WPLN News.
But he declined to directly answer questions about why he hired Strada and whether he bears some responsibility for the current situation, according to WSMV 4, the NBC affiliate in Nashville.
“The Department of Correction followed exactly the protocol that was outlined, and vetted, and approved by the Attorney General’s Office,” Lee told reporters in Tennessee. “At this point, that is all we know. Which is the very reason why we will have an investigation.”
In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs resumed executions in 2025 after ending a review of the state’s execution processes before it was completed. Hobbs had hired retired federal judge David Duncan to carry out that review, but she dismissed him after he concluded “lethal injection is not a viable method of execution in actual practice.”
KJZZ’s Lauren Gilger contributed to this report.
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