The architect of Tennessee’s new lethal injection protocols is stepping down as leader of the Department of Correction after a second failed execution this year.
Frank Strada helped design the state’s new execution process after a 2022 review found that Tennessee had not properly inspected the drugs it uses to put people to death. Strada came to Tennessee from Arizona, where he oversaw three botched executions similar to Wednesday’s.
Christa Pike, slated to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in almost 200 years, did not die after receiving two full doses of pentobarbital. Usually only one dose is considered lethal.
Gov. Bill Lee announced Strada’s departure Saturday morning, writing in a media release that he had accepted his resignation.
“I thank Commissioner Strada for his dedicated service to Tennessee and pray God’s blessings over him in the days ahead,” Lee said in a statement.
Lee has called for another moratorium on executions and a third-party review of the state’s lethal injection protocols. He did not answer reporters’ questions Thursday morning as to why he had not called for a review after Tony Carruthers’ botched execution in May. Similar to their execution attempt of Pike, medical staff had a hard time finding a vein for Carruthers.
Pike’s attorneys say she is unconscious and on a ventilator at an area hospital following Wednesday’s botched execution, which they say Pike had predicted because of her trouble with blood draws.
“We knew this was coming,” attorney Stephen Ferrell said. “So, back in January, we asked that this problem be addressed in a way that would not lead to the torture that happened last night.”
Pike’s attorneys have argued that her sentence should be commuted since the failed execution amounted to “cruel and unusual” punishment, something that could be determined by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
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