Tennessee woman’s execution halted an hour before death in stunning last-minute stay

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: For Christa Gail Pike, decades on death row were supposed to end Wednesday when a last-minute court intervention halted her execution.

The 50-year-old Tennessee death-row inmate was scheduled to be executed Wednesday, September 30, for a 1995 killing she committed at age 18.

With witnesses already at the prison and preparations underway, her execution was suddenly put on hold.

A federal appeals court intervened roughly an hour before Pike was scheduled to be put to death, sending the case into another legal battle.

Appeals court steps in an hour before execution

The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay in a 2-1 decision, giving judges time to examine whether evidence about Pike’s childhood and the trauma she says she suffered had been properly considered when she was sentenced to death.

The decision came as witnesses gathered at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for what was expected to be a historic execution.

Pike would have become the first woman executed by Tennessee in at least two centuries.

But instead of witnessing an execution, those who had arrived at the prison were left waiting to learn whether the state could proceed.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office immediately challenged the stay at the US Supreme Court, leaving open the possibility that the execution could still take place if the high court intervenes.

Media witnesses had already been taken inside the prison at around 10:15 a.m.

They waited for roughly 90 minutes before being returned to the parking lot as the legal fight continued.

Pike’s abuse claims return to court

Pike has never denied that she killed Slemmer.

Her legal fight has instead focused on the circumstances surrounding the crime and whether the punishment imposed on her fully accounted for what had happened to her before she was 18.

Pike’s supporters have pointed to what they describe as a childhood marked by extreme trauma.

Her supporters have also argued that her age, mental health history and traumatic childhood should have received greater consideration in the death-penalty proceedings.

After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a clemency petition, she described the killing as an attack that spiraled beyond what she intended.

She said she had initially wanted to fight Slemmer but lost control and “couldn’t put the brakes on.”

Pike has also expressed remorse for the killing in recent years.

“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid,” she said in a statement.

“It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected.”

She acknowledged the impact on Slemmer’s family as well.

“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,” Pike said.