Federal appeals court halts Christa Pike execution in Tennessee one hour before scheduled injection

Last-minute court order

A federal appeals court halted the scheduled execution of Christa Pike on 30 September 2026, roughly one hour before she was set to receive a lethal injection. The 50-year-old inmate is the only woman on death row in Tennessee. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay in a 2-1 decision around 09:00 local time, as witnesses and journalists had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The court ruled that judges required additional time to evaluate whether Pike's childhood history of severe sexual abuse and trauma had been properly considered during sentencing.

The interests of justice and the finality of Ms. Pike's impending execution require a short stay of execution.

Case background and 1995 conviction

Pike was 18 years old on 12 January 1995 when she participated in the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in a wooded area in Knoxville. Both women were enrolled in the Job Corps vocational training program at the time. Prosecutors showed that Pike, motivated by jealousy over a romantic relationship, attacked Slemmer alongside her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and acquaintance Shadolla Peterson. Trial evidence showed the victim suffered beating and knife wounds, and a pentagram was carved into her chest. Pike was sentenced to death in 1996, while Shipp received a life sentence without parole and Peterson received a reduced term after cooperating with police.

I was a mentally ill 18-year-old. It took years before I even realized the gravity of what I did. And even longer until I understood how many lives I impacted. I ended someone's life, that of a child, a sister, a friend. It disgusts me today when I think that I was capable of such a crime.

Legal appeals and state response

The stay arrived after multiple rejections earlier in the week. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied Pike's clemency petition on 28 September 2026, despite pleas from human rights groups such as Amnesty International. The U.S. Supreme Court also rejected a separate defense stay petition on 29 September 2026. Following the Sixth Circuit ruling, the Tennessee Attorney General immediately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the stay, arguing that the state and the victim's family are entitled to a final resolution. Witnesses and media representatives who entered Riverbend for the scheduled 10:00 execution were held inside the facility before officials permitted them to leave.

Context of capital punishment for women

Tennessee has not executed a female prisoner in more than 200 years, making Pike's scheduled sentence unique in modern state history. Across the entire United States, capital punishment for women remains rare compared to executions of male prisoners. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, authorities nationwide have executed 18 women and 1,663 men, representing just over 1% of all executions according to data from the Death Penalty Information Center. The previous execution of a woman in the United States occurred in 2023, when Missouri executed Amber McLaughlin. Pike's scheduled lethal injection would have marked the 30th execution in the country during 2026, a year in which Florida carried out 16 executions.