A federal appeals court in the United States has granted a last-minute stay of execution for Christa Pike, who was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, September 30, at 10 a.m. at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued the order at about 9 a.m. CDT, about an hour before the execution was set to take place. The court will review whether allegations of sexual abuse and rape Pike suffered as a child were fully considered during her trial.
Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. Pike was 18 years old at the time of the killing. According to prosecutors, Pike lured Slemmer to a wooded area, where she cut and beat her with a box cutter and a large piece of asphalt. Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted in connection with the killing.
The case drew widespread attention due to the circumstances of the killing, including a pentagram carved into Slemmer's body. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, while Pike was sentenced to death. Pike's attorneys have argued that her death sentence was an outlier because other people sentenced to death in Tennessee for crimes committed at age 18 have had their sentences vacated.
Pike's legal team had sought to stop the execution at multiple levels, but the US Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from her attorneys to halt the execution. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee also denied her clemency request on Monday. In a statement included in her clemency petition, Pike said she had struggled to understand the consequences of her actions and expressed remorse for taking the life of someone's child, sister, and friend.
Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, had supported carrying out Pike's execution, saying she had waited decades to see the sentence enforced. Martinez said a group had raised money to enable her and her husband to travel from Florida to witness the execution. She described her daughter's final moments, saying she thought about Colleen feeling pain and trying to get up and run.
Executions of women remain uncommon in the United States. Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been executed nationwide, accounting for about 1% of all executions. Tennessee has not executed a woman in at least 200 years, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre.
Pike's attorney said the court had stayed the execution, recognising serious concerns about her scheduled execution. It is unclear whether Tennessee's attorney general will challenge the decision or how long the stay will last. The court's decision provides temporary relief for Pike, who would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee in nearly two centuries.
Key points
- The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted a last-minute stay of execution for Christa Pike.
- Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
- Executions of women remain rare in the United States, with only 18 women executed nationwide since 1976.
