Tennessee’s outgoing prison chief had a history of execution missteps before Christa Pike, officials say

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(CNN) — Before the botched execution of Christa Pike, Frank Strada reportedly had a history of overseeing execution missteps in two states.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Saturday announced Correction Commissioner Strada would step down later this month following the backlash after the attempted execution left Pike on a ventilator, unconscious in a hospital. Less than three years earlier, Lee brought Strada on to lead the Department of Correction, tasking him with reforming Tennessee’s execution system after enduring concerns over the state’s approach to the death penalty.

But in Strada’s previous role as an official in Arizona’s prisons system, he oversaw three executions that administrators and observers raised concerns over, saying executioners flouted the state’s official policies. Now under his current supervision, Pike is the second person this year who Tennessee officials have failed to execute after problems with the IV injections.

The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to comment when asked by CNN about Strada’s involvement in these prior execution problems.

Pike’s debilitating survival has brought to light Strada’s history overseeing executions that didn’t follow typical protocol, and larger questions about the death penalty by both proponents and opponents. Lee has suspended executions for the year as an investigation is underway.

“The state of Tennessee has got to start telling its people exactly what it is doing, so that in the democratic process, the people of Tennessee can decide if that’s what they want to be done in their name,” Stephen Ferrell, Pike’s lawyer, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “This torturous execution leaves so many questions that the state of Tennessee will refuse to answer.”

As his resignation was announced, Strada said, “stepping aside is in the best interest of Tennesseans as the independent review moves forward.”

“I believe this review is entirely appropriate and necessary,” Strada said in a statement Saturday, “and I look forward to doing everything I can to help determine exactly what occurred.”

Here’s the latest on Strada’s final days overseeing Tennessee’s prisons, and what happened inside Pike’s death chamber.

Prisons chief oversaw past execution mishaps in Arizona

On Saturday, the state Attorney General’s Office retained Ed Stanton, a former US attorney, to conduct an independent review of the Department of Correction’s actions in carrying out Pike’s execution, Gov. Lee’s office announced.

Stanton previously oversaw an independent review of Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol in 2022, the governor’s office said, which resulted in the state substantially rewriting its protocol.

Strada began leading Tennessee’s correction department in 2023 when he was tasked with enacting that new protocol among other duties. An Air Force veteran, Strada was a senior official in Arizona’s prison system who previously had worked nearly 30 years for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

In naming Strada to lead the agency, Lee said Strada’s “extensive corrections management and law enforcement experience make him well-suited to lead the Department of Correction.”

Strada served as a deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. His tenure was marked with controversy around three executions that were performed after an eight-year moratorium in the state.

All three had issues with establishing IV lines to administer the lethal drug, lawyers said. The problems prompted Arizona’s governor to call for an independent review of execution protocols. The review in Arizona was announced weeks after Lee promoted Strada to his current post in Tennessee.

In a 2023 sworn declaration, Ryan Thornell, director of Arizona’s corrections department, said he was “unable to locate sufficient documentation” about execution procedures under the previous administration, which included Strada. He cited “several critical issues” impacting the agency’s ability to conduct executions, including inadequate expertise, efficacy of lethal injection drugs, and procedures with the IV team.

Thornell said he couldn’t find documentation identifying the pharmacist who compounded the lethal drugs. Without naming Strada, he said a prior deputy director was the main point of contact with the pharmacist but said he didn’t record anything. The effectiveness of the current supplies of the lethal drug couldn’t be guaranteed and needed to be tested to ensure safety and efficacy prior to use, Thornell said.

Meanwhile, he said the IV team who worked on the state’s most recent execution had been told by the prior administration to only use the femoral central line, which was against the department’s policy.

Two failed execution attempts in Tennessee

In Tennessee, questions have mounted around the Department of Correction’s protocol around executions, including IV administration to administer lethal doses.

Pike’s case wasn’t the first time state officials had trouble with lethal injections in recent months. In May, state officials halted the execution of Tony Carruthers when staff couldn’t get a secondary IV successfully placed after placing one IV into his right arm.

Later, the state’s execution of Anthony Darrell Hines was performed in August without any reported issues with placing the IVs, according to The Associated Press.

Advocates said issues with Tennessee’s procedures speak to larger issues around the death penalty.

“It’s not isolated to just one particular person or one particular execution team,” Kat Jutras, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona, told CNN. “If we look at it in that very microlens, we’re not seeing the broader picture with the death penalty itself and lethal injections really being at the forefront of some of the larger problems.”

Attempting another execution won’t bring justice, her lawyer tells CNN

Pike, who along with her boyfriend was convicted for the 1995 torture and killing of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, was one of the youngest women sent to death row.

During her scheduled execution Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, executioners struggled to set the IV lines necessary to administer the lethal dose of pentobarbital. Randy Spivey, one of her lawyers, told reporters she cooperated with the execution team and tried to give them tips on how to insert the IV lines, as she had warned the state she had a history with difficult vein access.

But her lawyers said issues with the IV resulted in the barbiturate, which slows the central nervous system, flowing into her body instead of her bloodstream. After the first dose failed to work, executioners administered a second dose.

“We may never know what sort of torture she endured during that process,” Ferrell, an assistant federal defender in Tennessee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” It’s unclear whether she was conscious or in physical pain during the procedure and subsequent life-saving treatment, he added.

“We don’t know what the prognosis is, as in the long-term prognosis, if she recovers,” he said, saying she remained unconscious in the hospital as of Sunday morning. “She may not fully recover.”

Her lawyers have called on the governor to commute Pike’s death sentence. After being convicted of first-degree murder, Pike has served more than 30 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, only to be brought out for a failed execution, Ferrell said.

“This has been a serious punishment for a very serious and awful crime,” Ferrell said. “I don’t think that attempting another execution is going to bring justice.”

The state Attorney General’s Office hasn’t given an indication of whether they’ll seek to put her to death again, he added.

Gov. Lee, who is term-limited after serving for eight years, will leave office in January. Republican US Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is running to replace him, has called to bring back the electric chair to “deliver justice for these victims swiftly.”

Some Tennessee lawmakers, including state House Speaker Cameron Sexton, have also proposed allowing the firing squad as an alternative execution method. At least five states have authorized the use of a firing squad for the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

‘State owes me a big apology,’ victim’s mother says

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, told CNN affiliate WTLV/First Coast News she believes the state failed her family, more than three decades after Pike killed Slemmer, who was 19.

“I think the state owes me a big apology,” she said.

Traveling from Florida with her husband, Martinez spent hours at the Nashville-area prison waiting to see Pike’s execution. But the curtains eventually closed in the execution area and witnesses had to leave. They were later told Pike was being taken to the hospital, Martinez said.

Martinez said she worries about Pike being out and said her family hasn’t been told whether her daughter’s murderer will return to prison.

Now she, along with state officials, must wait for answers to lingering questions of what went wrong with the execution and what’s next for Pike.

CNN’s Dakin Andone, Eric Levenson, Lauren del Valle and Ryan Young contributed to this report.

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