Tennessee’s first scheduled execution of a woman in 200 years was halted just one hour before Christa Pike was due to receive a lethal injection, after a federal appeals court raised serious questions about her case.
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued Pike a stay of execution at about 9am CT on Wednesday. The court agreed to review whether the childhood sexual abuse she endured had been properly considered when she was sentenced to death.
Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch described the order as a “short stay of execution” while the legal arguments are examined.
“To adequately address and resolve the issues now presented to this court and in carefully balancing the equities, we find that a stay of Pike’s execution is necessary,” Stranch wrote.
Stephen Ferrell, of the Federal Defenders Services of Eastern Tennessee, welcomed the decision, saying: “The court has stayed this recognizing the serious concerns about Christa’s scheduled execution.”
Pike was convicted in March 1996, when she was 18, for the brutal stabbing and beating death of Colleen Slemmer, a student at the Knoxville Job Corps.
She had initially asked to be spared lethal injection because of her Buddhist beliefs. Earlier this month, Pike requested that an all-female firing squad carry out her execution, while her attorneys pointed to the abuse she suffered during childhood.
Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and accomplice Shadolla Peterson helped lure Slemmer to a wooded area, where the pair tortured her.
Christa Pike’s execution was halted just one hour before she was scheduled to be put to death
Pike was convicted at 18 in March 1996 of brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer (pictured) to death
Police evidence showed that the attackers carved a pentagram into the teenager’s chest. Peterson also testified that she saw Pike carve a mark into Slemmer’s head.
Slemmer tried to escape, but the couple caught her and continued the attack. Pike estimated that the torture lasted between about 30 minutes and an hour.
Pike and Shipp were both convicted of first-degree murder. Pike received a death sentence, while Shipp was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Pike’s execution had been scheduled for 10am CT, or 11am ET, before the appeals court intervened.
Peterson, who was also 18 at the time, acted as a lookout during the attack and was later granted probation in exchange for cooperating with authorities.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said Pike refused her last meal just hours before the planned execution.
According to The Tennessean, inmates are generally given $20 to spend on a final meal. The state had nonetheless planned to provide Pike with food.
Pike’s refusal came after Tennessee Governor Bill Lee rejected her clemency petition and the US Supreme Court declined to block the execution.
Earlier this month, Pike (pictured after her 1996 sentencing) requested an all-female firing squad, with her lawyers citing the abuse she experienced as a child
Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and accomplice Shadolla Peterson (right) helped lure Slemmer to a wooded area before the attack
Pike’s lawyers said they were ‘deeply saddened and heartbroken’ by the governor’s decision.
‘Moving ahead with her execution puts the State of Tennessee on singular footing,’ they said in a statement to Fox 17.
‘Christa will be the first person Tennessee executes in the modern death penalty era who was a teenager at the time of the offense, and the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.’
Just a week before her execution, Pike asked for an all-female firing squad to kill her instead of lethal injection, the New York Post reported.
Her lawyers cited her post-traumatic stress disorder from years of abuse she suffered at the hands of men as a young girl, including when she was two years old.
Because of that, they requested that an all-female team handle her execution because she has trauma from men.
‘[Lethal injection administered by men] will increase the likelihood that an 8th Amendment violation will occur,’ Pike’s lawyer Stephen Ferrell said.
‘There is an increased risk of pain and suffering.’
Pike was ‘terrified’ of dying a ‘painful’ death by lethal injection, the report stated.
Just hours before her planned execution, Pike refused her last meal, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. (Pictured: A lethal injection bed inside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution)
Slemmer’s heartbroken mother, May Martinez, watched her daughter’s murderer die after previously telling Our News Outlet that she wanted a front-row seat to the execution
In August, she asked the court to consider allowing her to be hanged instead, WATE reported.
Slemmer’s heartbroken mother, May Martinez, watched her daughter’s murderer die after previously telling Our News Outlet that she wanted a front-row seat to the execution.
She and other execution witnesses had gathered at the jail when the order to halt Pike’s death was issued.
Martinez almost didn’t make it to Pike’s near-execution because of travel expenses, but a GoFundMe page helped her afford to do so.
‘They truly cannot believe how many people have stepped up, donated, shared, prayed, and simply shown that they care. They are beyond grateful for every single one of you,’ the fundraiser wrote on Sunday.
‘You helped make sure they could be there for Colleen. And that means more than words can say.’
