The Tennessee prisons chief overseeing the botched execution of Christa Pike on Sept. 30 was previously accused of mishandling prisoner executions in Arizona.
Frank Strada, a former deputy director of Arizona's Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry, left the agency after several executions in the state were marred by complications.
The agency overhauled its protocols after Strada's departure in 2023.
A review that year led by Ryan Thornell, who became director just after Strada left the agency, found "severely lacking" documentation interfered with officials' ability to make informed decisions about procedures. Execution drugs were stored in unlabeled and unmarked jars, and reporting inconsistencies made it unclear which medical procedures were used
in past executions, the review found.
Strada was one of two deputy directors of the Arizona Department of Corrections, supervising prison operations and serving as the public face of the state's executions. He held the position for three years, The Tennessean reported in 2023.
The Arizona Department of Corrections did not respond to a request for comment. Dorinda Carter, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Corrections, declined to comment.
In addition to Thornell's review, Gov. Katie Hobbs in 2023 commissioned an external review of Arizona's procedures, led by retired U.S. Magistrate Judge David Duncan. Duncan accused the agency of "chilling" shortcomings: Executions staff were under-prepared to administer lethal injections, consulting Wikipedia the night before an execution to confirm the proper dose, he told state officials in a draft of his findings.
The investigation was cut short in 2024 when Hobbs abruptly fired Duncan. The governor said his preliminary recommendation to end lethal injection altogether had exceeded the scope of her executive order prompting the independent review.
In an interview, Duncan told The Arizona Republic that the failed Tennessee execution was "very sad" but not surprising. He cited research finding that about a third of lethal injection executions run into complications.
Duncan said he still doesn't have faith Arizona will avoid a similar situation in the future, despite the state having performed several executions in recent years without incident. The process of lethal injection is "just risky" and "cloaked in secrecy," he argued, making it harder for officials to learn from their mistakes and blocking independent oversight.
Hobbs and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, both Democrats, have said they are now confident in the state's execution procedures.
"The problem is bigger than just one person," Duncan said. "It's not just Mr. Strada who is at fault. It's the entire system."
Critics: Strada helped bring 'flawed' Arizona procedures to Tennessee
Critics of Strada say he helped bring Arizona's "flawed" past procedures to Tennessee.
Arizona fell under heavy scrutiny after botching three executions in 2022.
Attorneys for one of those executed prisoners, Clarence Dixon, said it took 40 minutes to insert IVs into his body. Dixon's execution team resorted to inserting an IV line into his femoral vein, which caused him to experience pain, and resulted in a "fair amount of blood," according to media witnesses.
Months later, Murray Hooper, turned and asked the viewing gallery, “Can you believe this?” as the execution team tried and failed repeatedly to insert IVs in his arms before inserting a catheter into his femoral vein.
Pike, 50, survived two rounds of lethal injection drugs and was taken by ambulance to a hospital, her attorneys have said. She was to be put to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer.
A briefing, prepared by federal public defenders for a Tennessee prisoner who was executed in August, found Strada helped implement Arizona's now-defunct protocols from his new post. Some of Tennessee's guidelines copied language from the Arizona procedures "verbatim," the briefing says.
"Commissioner Strada’s tenure in Arizona was marked by repeated problematic executions and significant failures by the ADCRR to properly follow the execution protocol," the briefing reads. Still, "the 2025 Tennessee Protocol adopted by Strada repeatedly copied language from the flawed 2022 protocol that Arizona has worked to correct."
Pike's attorneys said she had been concerned that a blood condition and issues with Pike's veins would interfere with the execution. Medical experts who testified on her behalf over the summer warned that the intravenous line could become dislodged or pierce through her veins.
Witnesses in the execution chamber late on Sept. 30 said they could still hear Pike snoring as they were ushered out.
The failure prompted Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, to call for an independent investigation and put a pause on executions in the state for the remainder of the year. He called what happened in Pike's death chamber "disturbing" and a "tragedy."
Pike was still unconscious and on a ventilator as of Oct. 2, according to her lawyers.
USA TODAY's Jeanine Santucci and Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tennessee prisons chief was accused of mishandling Arizona executions
