US appeals court halts Tennessee execution of Christa Pike

Execution of Tennessee inmate Christa Pike was briefly halted an hour before it was scheduled to take place. Pike, 50, had been waiting for execution since her conviction and death sentence in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. On Wednesday, judges from the Sixth Circuit Appeals court requested additional time to review Pike's case. The duration of the pause remains uncertain.

This decision came after the Supreme Court denied a reprieve and Tennessee Governor declined to grant Pike clemency earlier in the week. Pike's legal team had previously contended that the state of Tennessee had claimed she lied about sexual abuse as a child. However, during a recent hearing about her execution method, the state admitted to her sexual abuse and rape.

Pike's lawyers requested the appeals court to return her motion to the district court, arguing that if the federal courts based their decision on Tennessee's earlier claim, it would affect the federal review. The appeal that led to Wednesday's stay focused on Pike's challenge to Tennessee's lethal injection method, which her lawyers claimed could cause undue suffering, contradicting the Constitution. Her attorneys argued that Tennessee's procedures had denied her a fair chance to prove this.

The murder took place when Pike was 18, alongside her then-boyfriend, leading to the brutal beating, torture, and murder of Colleen Slemmer. The crime garnered significant media attention in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1995, after Slemmer's body was discovered with a pentagram carved into her chest. Pike denied carving the pentagram herself, instead accusing Slemmer of insulting her and attempting to steal her boyfriend.

Two other residents at the camp later confirmed that Pike had boasted about the murder before and after, even showing them a piece of Slemmer's skull.

Pike's attorneys argued that an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, thus questioning the constitutionality of her death sentence. At the time of her incarceration, Pike was the youngest person on death row, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.