US inmate Christa Pike is battling a rare cancer at the centre of her lawyers' warnings before her botched execution

Christa Pike, the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in the United States, has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that her lawyers say played a direct role in complications during her botched lethal injection earlier this year. Tennessee officials had been alerted to her condition before the execution and warned it could lead to serious problems — cautions her legal team says were disregarded.

Pike is now asking a court to bar officials from returning her to her former prison block, warning 'I will be seriously hurt'.

Within days of being returned to custody after the failed execution, she was hospitalised again.

Prosecutors had moved forward despite knowing about the cancer diagnosis; her legal team contends that the failed attempt now makes a fresh challenge to the method of execution unavoidable.