NewzA US appeals court ordered a "short stay of execution" for death row inmate Christa Pike, less than two hours before she was scheduled to be the first woman put to death in the state in more than two centuries. The court halted the execution to give it time to consider Pike's claims that her history of severe sexual abuse had not been taken into consideration during sentencing. A US appeal court on Wednesday halted the execution of death row inmate Christa Pike in Tennessee, less than two hours before she was scheduled to become the first woman that state has put to death in more than 200 years.
The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a “short stay of execution” to give it time to weigh Pike’s claim that her allegations of childhood sexual abuse were not adequately considered during her sentencing. The court did not provide a specific time frame. (AP) — Tennessee's execution of Christa Gail Pike for a murder she committed at age 18 was halted Wednesday about an hour before it was set to begin, as a federal appeals court sought to review whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape 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.
She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in at least 200 years.The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals halted the execution on a 2-1 vote after execution witnesses and others gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.Tennessee’s attorney general immediately appealed the stay to the U.S. Witnesses and media remained at the prison in case the high court allows the execution to proceed.
Media witnesses were brought into the prison about 10:15 a.m. to wait.More than 30 people, some wearing shirts that said “Love Heals,” gathered in a fenced-in area outside the prison while police on horses watched nearby.The case garnered widespread attention at the time of the killing in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer’s body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.Pike's case renewed debate on the death penalty for teensAs the execution date drew near, it renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider Pike’s age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler. Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated.After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
In her clemency petition she said she only wanted to fight Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she couldn’t “put the brakes on.”“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected.
I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. The execution of Tennessee inmate Christa Pike has been halted an hour before it was due to happen. Pike, 50, has been awaiting execution since she was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.
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