The US Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Tennessee’s execution of Christa Gail Pike to move forward after a last-minute stay.
Earlier Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to halt the execution to determine whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were taken into consideration during her death penalty sentencing.
Tennessee’s Attorney General immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. A few hours later, the Supreme Court allowed Tennessee to go forward with the execution.
This is the First time Tennessee will have executed a woman in 200 years.
Christa Pike, 50, is set to be executed for a 1995 fatal stabbing, torture and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
An inverted pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s chest during the gruesome murder.
Pike was 18 at the time of the murder. Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was also convicted of the 1995 murder.
The Associated Press reported:
The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the execution of Christa Gail Pike to go forward, overturning a last-minute stay on Wednesday that was issued by an appeals court hours earlier.
Pike was scheduled to die by lethal injection in the morning, and witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay. That court said a delay was needed to consider whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.
Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of the 1995 stabbing and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville.
