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A US federal appeals court paused the execution of Tennessee woman Christa Pike just an hour before it was scheduled to take place, seeking a review of her sentencing regarding allegations of childhood abuse. This was set to be the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in over two centuries.
The execution of Christa Pike was halted by a US appeals court just an hour before it was scheduled to take place. A US appeals court has paused the execution of Tennessee woman Christa Gail Pike an hour before it was scheduled to go ahead.
The execution would have been the first time a woman had been subjected to the death penalty in Tennessee in more than 200 years. The US state of Tennessee's first execution of a woman in at least 200 years has been halted by an appeals court just an hour before it was set to begin, after a federal appeals court sought a review of case details.
Christa Gail Pike was set to be executed by legal injection on Wednesday morning, local time, for a murder she committed at age 18. Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville in 1995. But the federal appeals court is now seeking to review whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered at her sentencing.
The case garnered widespread attention at the time 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. It was not immediately clear if Tennessee's attorney general was appealing the decision, or how long the execution might be delayed. A phone message and email were left with a spokesperson for the attorney general's office seeking comment.
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 sentenced to death in Tennessee have had their sentences vacated.
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request from Pike's attorneys to halt the execution. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Monday denied Pike clemency.
"I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I'd done," Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition. Slemmer's mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike's sentence carried out.
"Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run," May Martinez said in a telephone interview.
Christa Pike Tennessee Death Penalty Executions Federal Appeals Court
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