Christa Pike has handcuffs removed in hospital after botched execution – but not ‘flight risk’, says lawyer

Christa Pike’s handcuffs have been removed as she recovers in hospital from her botched execution – but the killer is not a “flight risk”, her lawyer has said.

The convicted murderer, 50, became the first American death row inmate to survive a lethal injection Sept. 30 in Tennessee and received treatment to recover from two doses of pentobarbital.

“Ms. Pike’s handcuffs have been removed, but one foot remains chained to the bed,” her attorney, Luke Ihnen, said in a filing Thursday after visiting her the day before.

“Ms. Pike is in the custody of three armed prison officers,” he added. “Ms. Pike does not pose an escape risk. Nor is she physically capable of doing so.”

Pike’s lawyers asked during a court hearing Wednesday that her hand not be restrained at the request of medical staff treating her.

However, Ihnen said in Thursday’s filing that because the handcuffs had already been removed, Pike was withdrawing his previous request.

It is unclear who made the decision to remove them.

Here’s the latest on the botched execution of Tennessee murderer Christa Pike:

The prisoner was sentenced to death for the sadistic murder of her Job Corps classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, in January 1995, when she was 18 years old.

By Monday evening, her legal team believed she was brain dead and would be taken off life support the next day.

Instead, she woke up and started talking Tuesday morning — and by Wednesday afternoon, she was walking with help.

The state has not confirmed whether it will reschedule Pike’s execution in the future.

This year, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee suspended all remaining executions following the fiasco and ordered an independent investigation into what went wrong.

Pike’s attorneys asked Governor Lee to commute Pike’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.