200 Years On, Tennessee Stays Execution of Christa Pike

The Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals stayed the execution of Christa Gail Pike hours before she was set to die by lethal injection Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to Al Jazeera. Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee's death row, and her execution would have been the state's first of a woman in more than 200 years. The US Supreme Court had already rejected a bid to halt it before the appeals court intervened.

What was Christa Pike convicted of?

Pike was found guilty of first-degree murder in 1996 for killing Colleen Slemmer, 19, in January 1995. Pike, then 18, along with her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, lured Slemmer into a wooded area near a Knoxville Job Corps vocational center, where all four were students, and tortured and killed her, per Al Jazeera's account of the case. The attackers carved a pentagram into Slemmer's chest — Shipp later admitted to that act — and Pike kept a piece of Slemmer's skull. Pike and Shipp confessed. Pike was sentenced to death; Shipp received life with the possibility of parole. Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has spoken in support of carrying out the execution, while Pike's lawyers have described her as "a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions."

Why did Pike request a firing squad instead of lethal injection?

Pike asked to be shot by an all-female firing squad rather than die by lethal injection, according to a New York Post report cited by Al Jazeera. The source material does not detail her stated reasoning, but the request places her among a small number of death row prisoners nationally who have sought alternatives to lethal injection amid ongoing litigation over the drugs used and how executions are carried out.

What did the courts decide, and why?

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee had determined it lacked jurisdiction over part of Pike's challenge, according to the Sixth Circuit's order quoted by Al Jazeera. The appeals court's stay came after the Supreme Court had already declined to block the execution, meaning the case could still return to the high court. Human rights advocates have objected to the execution proceeding at all. Attorney Clive Stafford Smith, who has represented other death row prisoners, told Al Jazeera the case marks a rare event: "Very few women are executed, but fewer still in Tennessee — it has been 200 years. So this is a step back to about 1820."

What happens next?

Al Jazeera reports the stay is not necessarily final — the Supreme Court retains the ability to overturn the Sixth Circuit's order and allow the execution to proceed. Pike's legal team has argued more broadly that she should not be executed at all, citing her age at the time of the crime and her conduct since. No new execution date had been set as of Al Jazeera's report.

Why does this case draw national attention?

Women are executed far less often than men in the United States, and Tennessee had not put a woman to death in roughly two centuries before Pike's case, per Al Jazeera and Stafford Smith's comments. That rarity, combined with Pike's unusual request for a firing squad and the last-minute judicial intervention, has kept the case under close watch as it moves back toward the Supreme Court.