Tennessee execution of Christa Gail Pike halted by federal court: 5 things to know about ‘last-minute stay’

Christa Pike, Tennessee's only female death row inmate, had her execution halted by a federal appellate court just before it was scheduled to take place. According to El Pais, Pike was 18 when she killed a fellow student in 1995 and is now 50 years old.

The state governor and supreme court had earlier refused calls for clemency. Pike's defense had asked that her sentence be commuted to life in prison, but they were out of appeals after the Supreme Court denied a stay, as reported by El Pais English.

The execution would have been Tennessee's first of a woman in over 200 years. After a botched lethal injection in May, dozens of Tennessee medical professionals told the governor that healthcare professionals shouldn't help with executions, no matter the method, NPR reported.

Brief written by urgent.news from Hindustan Times - World News, NPR, The Guardian US, El Pais English, El Pais — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.