Federal court halts Christa Pike’s execution in Tennessee at the last moment
A federal appeals court has temporarily stayed the execution of Christa Gail Pike, who would be the first woman in Tennessee to be executed in more than 200 years. The order came just an hour before the death sentence was scheduled to be carried out.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said it was issuing a “short stay of execution” after a 2-1 vote to give the judges time to analyze the arguments raised and resolve the issues on the merits. It’s unclear how long the stay could last.
The order came as reporters, relatives and others were gathering at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville to watch Pike’s execution by lethal injection, which was scheduled for 10 a.m. CT.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti immediately appealed the order to the U.S. Supreme Court, which had previously declined to stop Pike’s execution. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee also denied a request for clemency.
Pike, who is now 50, was convicted in the brutal 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who Pike believed was trying to steal her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. The couple, along with a friend, lured Slemmer into the woods with an offer to make peace.
There, Slemmer was attacked by Pike and Shipp while the friend acted as a lookout. The student was taunted, beaten and slashed multiple times during a 30-minute ordeal that ended when Pike crushed her skull with a large piece of asphalt. Pike also used a box cutter to carve a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest.
Pike admitted to killing Slemmer and was sentenced to death but her lawyers have argued that her allegations that she was the victim of sexual abuse and rape at the hands of her mother’s live-in boyfriend should have been considered at sentencing, as well as her bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, had told reporters that she had waited for more than three decades to see Pike’s sentence being carried out, and has expressed frustration with the public’s focus on the convicted killer, and the defense’s argument that Pike would never be able to share a meal with her family again.
“Yeah, Colleen never got to do that again either,” Martinez said, according to Clarín. “She never got to go to the mall again, or to the roller rink, or to celebrate another birthday. Those are moments I will never get back. … I am her voice. Someone has to speak for Colleen.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
