Christa Pike, who has been on death row for over 30 years for murder, is the first person in the modern era of the U.S. death penalty to receive lethal injection drugs and survive.

With capital punishment on the wane, executions have become the purview of a shrinking number of places.

Democratic nominee Jerri Green called for Commissioner Frank Strada's resignation, while the other three candidates said they wouldn't keep him.

THE BOTCHED execution of Christa Pike has saved death row killer Gary Wayne Sutton weeks before his own lethal injection. Pike, 50, is under guard in hospital and remains critically ill after

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The legal battle over a failed execution in Tennessee could be headed back to court. Attorneys for Christa Pike have filed an emergency motion to preserve evidence from the lethal injection failure.

Since 1982, there have been at least 64 botched executions, the vast majority of which involved lethal injection, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. Seven of those execution attempts failed entirely because officials in Tennessee, Idaho, Alabama and Ohio could not properly insert intravenous lines.

In May, the state tried to execute Tony Carruthers using lethal injection drugs but could not find a “suitable vein,” its correction department said.