Resigned Tennessee prison chief oversaw troubled Arizona executions
Former Arizona official resigns in Tennessee after failed execution
Advocates call for systemic changes after Frank Strada, a former top official at the Arizona Department of Corrections, resigns in Tennessee. FOX 01's Andrew Christiansen learns more about Christa Pike's failed execution, and the ties back to Arizona.
PHOENIX - A failed execution in Tennessee resulted in a woman in critical condition, and the Tennessee Department of Corrections commissioner that oversees executions has a history of overseeing botched ones in Arizona too.
Who is Frank Strada?:
Frank Strada, until this week, was commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction. Before that, he was a top official at the Arizona Department of Corrections, overseeing lethal injections during a period marred by serious execution complications in Arizona.
Arizona's history of botched executions resurfaces after Tennessee lethal injection fails
A failed execution in Tennessee has brought attention back to Arizona's lethal injection problems under Frank Strada, who now heads Tennessee's corrections department.
The backstory:
Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital earlier this week at a Tennessee prison, where she is on death row for a 1995 murder. Overseeing that execution was Commissioner Strada, who previously helped direct Arizona executions.
Botched Executions in AZ:
In 2022, Arizona executioners took nearly 30 minutes to find a vein to execute Clarence Dixon. One month later, inmate Frank Atwood had to suggest staff use a vein in his hand after they struggled with his arm.
Those issues prompted Gov. Katie Hobbs to pause all Arizona executions in 2023 while the state reviewed its protocols before restarting them in 2025.
What they're saying:
Advocates say Strada’s resignation in Tennessee does not solve the underlying problems.
"The institutions that hire people like this and don't acknowledge the problems. It's bigger than just that one person," said Kat Jutras, executive director for Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona.
Jutras is urging state officials to reevaluate capital punishment entirely.
"There is no good way to kill somebody, and as a country, as a state, we have to really evaluate how we're handling justice, and is this in the best interest of the victim? Alternative means that we don't use it, and we reinvest that amount of money into violence prevention and intervention support for victims," Jutras said.
"Unprecendented":
Legal experts say surviving lethal drugs after they enter the bloodstream is almost unheard of in American history.
"It's unprecedented. We've never had a person survive their own execution after the drugs have been administered," said Prof. Corinna Barrett Lain, a capital punishment expert.
Masking Pain:
Professor Lain says inmates have survived in past incidents only when executioners failed to secure an IV line. She notes that Arizona's former three-drug protocol included paralytics that masked the inmate's physical suffering.
"You're going to get this nice drifting off to sleep look no matter what is happening, and we know from autopsies what is actually happening. And so that's very disturbing," Lain said.
What's next:
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has halted all executions in that state until at least the end of the year while an independent investigation is conducted into what went wrong with Pike’s execution.
The Source: Information in this report was gathered from Kat Jutras, executive director for Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona; Prof. Corinna Barrett Lain, capital punishment expert; Governor Bill Lee, governor of Tennessee; and previous FOX 10 reports.