Federal appeals court halts execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike

A federal appeals court has halted Tennessee’s execution of Christa Gail Pike about an hour before she was scheduled to receive a lethal injection for a murder committed when she was 18.

According to CNN, the court intervened Wednesday to review whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered during sentencing.

Pike, now 50, was convicted alongside her boyfriend of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to death in Knoxville in 1995. Her execution would have been Tennessee’s first involving a woman in at least 200 years.

“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike said in her clemency petition.

The US Supreme Court had denied her request for a stay Tuesday, while Tennessee Governor Bill Lee rejected clemency Monday.

It remains unclear how long the execution will be delayed or whether Tennessee’s attorney general will appeal the ruling.