Appeals court halts Tennessee execution of Christa Pike

Nashville, United States. A federal appeals court on Wednesday halted the execution of Christa Pike less than two hours before it was scheduled to take place in Tennessee. She would have been the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.

Court orders short stay

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a “short stay of execution” to consider Pike’s claim that allegations of childhood sexual abuse were not adequately considered at her sentencing. It gave no timeframe for its review.

The Tennessee attorney general’s office immediately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the stay. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had rejected a separate last-minute request to halt the execution, which was scheduled at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, the state capital.

Governor Bill Lee denied Pike’s clemency petition, which highlighted childhood trauma and sexual abuse. If executed, Pike would be the only person in the modern era of U.S. capital punishment put to death in Tennessee for a crime committed as a teenager.

1995 killing

Pike, now 50, was 18 in January 1995 when she, her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and a third companion lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into a wooded area. Slemmer was a classmate at their Knoxville Job Corps vocational center. She was tortured and killed.

The killing drew intense media coverage. The perpetrators carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest and took a piece of her skull as a souvenir. Trial testimony indicated that Pike viewed Slemmer as a rival for Shipp’s affections.

Pike and Shipp confessed and were convicted of first-degree murder the following year. Pike was sentenced to death; Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Their co-defendant, Shadolla Peterson, who was 18 at the time and acted as a lookout, testified for the prosecution and received probation.