The execution of Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, was halted Wednesday about one hour before it was scheduled to take place. A federal appeals court ordered the stay while it reviews whether allegations of severe childhood abuse and sexual trauma were adequately considered during her sentencing.
Pike, 50, was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at a Job Corps training facility in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time of the killing. Her attorneys have argued that her age, mental health history and traumatic childhood should have been given greater consideration, while the victim’s mother has supported carrying out the sentence.
The execution had been scheduled by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville and would have been Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in more than 200 years. The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected an earlier request to halt the execution, and Governor Bill Lee had denied clemency.
It was not immediately clear how long the stay would delay the execution or whether Tennessee authorities would challenge the appeals court’s decision.
