Prison chief in Christa Pike case oversaw five ‘botched’ executions, lawyers say

Frank Strada facing mounting questions after Pike survives injection with lethal drugs in Tennessee

Tennessee’s prison chief is under fire for the failed execution of Christa Pike, which lawyers say was the fifth “botched” execution under his leadership across two states since 2022.

Frank Strada, the commissioner of the Tennessee department of correction, has faced mounting questions about the state’s highly secretive death penalty protocols since Wednesday evening when Pike became the first death row prisoner in the US to to be injected with lethal drugs and survive.