Christa Pike Receives Last-Minute Stay Just One Hour Before Execution — What Happened?
Christa Pike has been granted a temporary stay of execution, just an hour before she was set to face the death penalty.
As previously reported, Pike had previously exhausted all of her appeals for clemency, but just one hour before her scheduled execution, it was announced that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals approved a last-minute request for a stay of execution, per WKRN.
After the news was revealed, Pike’s attorney released a statement, which reads: “The court has stayed this recognizing the serious concerns about Christa’s scheduled execution.”
Pike is the only female inmate on Tennessee’s death row and had been set to become the first female inmate executed by the state in 200 years.
She has remained on death row for 30 years after confessing to the killing of Colleen Slemmer, her former Job Corps classmate, when she was just 18 years old.
Pike had become jealous of Slemmer, believing she was interested in her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp.
The pair – along with their friend, Shadolla Peterson, who acted as lookout – lured Slemmer to a secluded location where she was brutally beaten and killed.
Her body was later found with a pentagram carved into her chest, and her skull had been caved in with a piece of asphalt, with Pike reportedly keeping a piece of the skull and showing it off around the school.
She confessed to the killing and was sentenced to death, with her execution date finally set for 10 AM on September 30, 2026.
Ahead of her execution, Pike had launched several appeals to halt it, all of which were denied.
However, just an hour before she was set to die by lethal injection, news broke that she had been granted a stay.
Her execution had been scheduled to begin at 10AM, with state laws allowing up to seven members of print, radio, and television news to be present and witness the execution, as well as Slemmer’s immediate family members and Pike’s family members.
News crews on the scene reported being turned away in advance of the time of execution.
Pike’s legal team had argued that the state’s execution protocols would make Pike’s death torturous because of conditions affecting her health and psychological conditions, including PTSD.
As part of the conditions put forward by her legal team, Pike had requested to be moved to the Riverbend Maximum Security Insтιтution 24 hours before her execution, and only be observed by female corrections staff.
She also turned down the chance to request a last meal, something death row inmates in Tennessee are allowed to choose.
Though Pike has been granted a stay, this does not mean her execution will not still go ahead at a later date, depending on the decision of the court.
Featured image credit: Tennessee Department of Corrections
✓ Team
Christa Pike has been granted a temporary stay of execution, just an hour before she was set to face the death penalty. As previously reported, Pike had…