Execution of US murderer Christa Pike halted an hour before it was due to happen

The execution of Christa Pike, a 50-year-old Tennessee inmate, has been halted an hour before it was scheduled to take place. Pike was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a case that garnered significant media attention in Knoxville in 1995. The Sixth Circuit Appeals court ruled on Wednesday to grant Pike an hour-long stay, requesting more time to assess the arguments in her case.

The Supreme Court had previously denied a reprieve, and the Tennessee governor had declined to grant clemency to Pike earlier in the week.

Pike's legal team argued that Tennessee had previously claimed in court that she lied about being sexually abused as a child. However, during a recent hearing regarding her execution method, the state admitted that Pike did indeed suffer sexual abuse and rape. Pike's legal representatives appealed to the appeals court to send her motion back to the district court, contending that the federal courts' ruling was impacted by the state's earlier assertion that she was lying.

The appeal focused on Tennessee's lethal injection method, which Pike's lawyers argued could cause excessive suffering, violating the constitutional principle of humane treatment. They maintained that Tennessee's procedures failed to provide her with a fair opportunity to prove this claim.

At the time of the murder, Pike was 18 years old. She and her then-boyfriend committed a brutal and torturous killing of Slemmer, who was found with a symbolic pentagram carved into her chest. Pike denied involvement in carving the pentagram and accused her victim of attempting to steal her boyfriend. Two other residents at the camp later corroborated Pike's claims, stating that she had openly admitted to the murder and boasted about it afterward.

Her attorneys argued that the "immaturity of an 18-year-old brain" warranted a different sentencing than death for her crime. At the time of her incarceration, Pike held the distinction of being the youngest individual on death row in Tennessee.