The execution of US inmate Christa Pike has been halted shortly before she was due to be put to death in Tennessee, according to the BBC.
Pike, 50, had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
The Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on Wednesday, giving judges more time to consider arguments in Pike’s case. The court did not say how long the stay would last.
The development came after the US Supreme Court rejected Pike’s request for a stay and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee declined her request for clemency earlier this week.
Pike’s lawyers have challenged aspects of her case, including the State’s previous position concerning her claims of childhood sexual abuse.
The lawyers argue that Tennessee had previously maintained that Pike had lied about being abused, but during a recent hearing the State said it did not dispute that she had suffered sexual abuse and rape.
Her legal team asked the appeals court to send the matter back to the district court, arguing that the earlier position could have affected the federal review of her case.
The appeal that resulted in Wednesday’s stay is separate from the appeal taken to the US Supreme Court, which declined to grant a stay.
Pike’s lawyers have also challenged Tennessee’s lethal-injection method, arguing that it could cause unnecessary suffering.
Tennessee’s Attorney General said the State would continue to defend the sentence and has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the stay.
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996, while Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
The BBC reports that Pike has a history of childhood sexual abuse, abandonment and neglect. Her lawyers argue that she would not receive a death sentence if convicted of the same crime as a teenager today.
Last year, Tennessee’s Supreme Court ruled that Pike had not shown circumstances that would justify commuting her sentence, according to the BBC.
If the execution proceeds, Pike would be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Source: BBC
Photo:Christa Pike seen at a hearing for a new trial on January 12, 2001.
Knoxville News Sentinel/USA Today Network/Imagn Images
