A US appeals court has temporarily halted the scheduled execution of Christa Pike, preventing Tennessee from carrying out what would have been the state’s first execution of a woman in more than two centuries.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay on Wednesday, less than an hour before Pike was due to receive a lethal injection. The ruling gives the court additional time to examine arguments surrounding her background and the circumstances of her conviction.
Pike’s Execution Was Scheduled in Tennessee
Pike, now 50, was due to be executed at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at 10am local time.
She has spent nearly three decades on Tennessee’s death row after being convicted of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer when Pike was 18.
Pike became the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and had been scheduled to become the first woman executed by the state since 1820.
Court Examines Claims of Childhood Abuse
The appeals court’s decision centres on whether allegations that Pike was sexually abused during childhood were adequately considered in earlier proceedings.
The court said the impending execution warranted a temporary stay so that it could properly review the arguments presented by both sides.
Pike’s lawyers have argued that her age, mental health and traumatic childhood should be considered when determining whether her death sentence should be carried out.
Killing Drew National Attention
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in connection with the 1995 killing of Slemmer at a job-training programme for young people.
The case attracted widespread attention after Slemmer’s body was discovered with a pentagram carved into her chest.
Pike was 18 at the time of the killing, a factor that has remained central to arguments surrounding her punishment.
Clemency Appeal Was Rejected
Pike’s legal team had also sought clemency, arguing that she was severely mentally ill when the crime occurred and had experienced significant trauma.
In a clemency petition to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, her lawyers emphasised that she was only 18 when Slemmer was killed. Lee declined to intervene.
The US Supreme Court also rejected a request for a stay on Tuesday. That application argued that Pike’s history of sexual assault, post-traumatic stress disorder and a blood disorder raised concerns that lethal injection could cause unnecessary suffering.
UN Experts Called for Execution to Be Stopped
Independent United Nations human rights experts had separately urged US and Tennessee authorities to halt the execution and commute Pike’s death sentence.
They pointed to what they described as a history of severe physical and psychological suffering, including childhood abuse and almost three decades spent in solitary confinement on death row.
Their intervention added an international dimension to the legal debate surrounding Pike’s case.
Women Rarely Executed in the US
Pike’s case also highlights the relatively small number of women who have faced execution in the United States.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 18 women have been executed in the country since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
The Sixth Circuit’s latest ruling means Pike’s execution will not proceed while the court considers the latest legal arguments.
The court’s review will determine whether the stay remains in place and what happens next in the long-running case.
