Christa Pike Execution: US Supreme Court Clears Way for Tennessee To Put First Woman to Death in 200 Years

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for Tennessee to execute Christa Gail Pike, overturning a last-minute stay that had stalled what would be the state's first execution of a woman in at least 200 years. Pike, 50, was set to die by lethal injection in the morning for a killing she committed at age 18, and witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to halt the execution. The appeals court said it needed time to consider whether her allegations of childhood s*xual abuse were fully weighed at sentencing, but the Supreme Court has now lifted that stay, and the Tennessee Department of Correction said it would go ahead on Wednesday night, before a midnight cutoff on the state's execution order.

Supreme Court Order And Dissent

The court's conservative majority gave no explanation for its order, AP reported. The three liberal justices signed a dissent saying Pike's claims deserved a closer look.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that vacating the stay interfered with the 6th Circuit's handling of the case and "unnecessarily prevents that court from giving due consideration to Pike's claim." Christa Pike Execution Stayed by Court Less Than 2 Hours Before Lethal Injection.

State Called It Delay Tactics

Tennessee's attorney general appealed to the Supreme Court right after the stay was issued, while witnesses and media waited at the prison. The office argued that stopping the execution at the last moment traumatized the victim's family and rewarded "abusive delay tactics" by Pike's lawyers.

The 1995 Killing In Knoxville

Pike and her boyfriend were convicted over the 1995 stabbing and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Angelynn Mock Pleads Guilty: Ex-News Anchor Admits Killing Mother After Believing She Was Possessed by the Devil.

The case drew wide attention partly because a pentagram carved on the victim's body stoked fears of Satan worship during the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s. Pike's boyfriend, Shipp, has admitted he carved the symbol. He was 17 at the time and got life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.

Pike's Defence And Clemency Plea

Pike does not deny the killing. Her supporters want her age, mental illness and allegations of severe abuse, including rape from the time she was a toddler, to be considered. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Her lawyers wrote in a filing: "It is inconceivable that in the 21st century, the criminal justice system is poised to execute a survivor of rape and child s*xual abuse whose jury never had the opportunity to consider those facts in weighing the defendant's moral culpability."

In her clemency petition, Pike said she only wanted to fight Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she couldn't "put the brakes on." In a statement, she said: "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. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime."

Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said her death sentence is an outlier, since other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated. The case has renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.

Victim's Mother Wants Sentence Carried Out

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, wants the execution to go ahead after waiting decades. She told The Associated Press: "Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run."

"Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst," she said, adding that her daughter would have turned 51 earlier in September. A group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution.

Executions Of Women Are Rare In US

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Tennessee has not executed a woman in at least 200 years, though older records can be spotty. Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been executed in the US, about 1% of all executions.

Missouri executed Amber McLaughlin in 2023, believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the country. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, its first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades.

If carried out, Pike would be the 30th person executed in the US this year, after Florida carried out an execution on Tuesday.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 01, 2026 07:58 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).