Court halts Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in two centuries

On Wednesday, a US appeals court temporarily halted the execution of Christa Pike, a death row inmate in Tennessee, to consider her claim that her childhood sexual abuse allegations were not adequately addressed during her sentencing. The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief suspension, though it did not specify a timeframe.

Pike, who would be the only woman in modern US history to face execution for a crime committed as a teenager, was denied clemency by Governor Bill Lee. The Tennessee attorney general's office promptly requested a stay from the US Supreme Court, which denied the request, allowing the execution to proceed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

At 50, Pike was 18 when she and her 17-year-old boyfriend and companion lured and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The brutal murder, which involved pentagram carving and the removal of a skull fragment as a keepsake, garnered significant media attention. Pike and her co-defendants were convicted and sentenced in the following year.

Currently, Pike is the sole woman on Tennessee's death row, and she was also convicted in 2001 of attempting to murder another inmate.