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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levin

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

Correction Commissioner Frank Strada speaks at a podium with microphones, people standing behind him
Frank Strada in Nashville, Tennessee, on 13 August. Photograph: Mark Humphrey/AP

Tennessee’s prison chief is resigning after 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.

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