Christa Pike Execution Halted: Federal Court Grants Last-Minute Stay for Tennessee’s Only Woman on Death Row

A federal appeals court has temporarily halted the execution of Christa Pike, Tennessee’s only female death row inmate, roughly one hour before she was scheduled to die by lethal injection.

The last-minute intervention prevents her from becoming the first woman executed by the state in over 200 years.

According to Reuters, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a short stay of execution to allow judges time to review whether Pike’s claims of childhood trauma, rape, and sexual abuse were properly considered during her sentencing.

The court’s 2-to-1 majority order keeps the stay in place “until further order of this court” without establishing a new execution date.

Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for a murder committed when she was an 18-year-old teenager.

If carried out, she would be the only person in Tennessee’s modern capital punishment era executed for a crime committed at that age.

The federal stay follows a decision by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to deny clemency, alongside a separate rejection of a reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court just a day prior.

In response to the delay, the Tennessee Attorney General’s office has immediately petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay so the execution at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville can proceed.