Execution of lone woman on Tennessee's death row paused by federal appeals court

The execution of the only woman on Tennessee's death row was paused at the 11th hour as a federal appeals court reviews the case.

The state has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the appeals court's stay.

Christa Pike, 50, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday at 10 a.m. CT. She was sentenced to death after being convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

In a 2-1 decision issued within two hours of the scheduled execution, Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit wrote that a stay is necessary in the "interests of justice and the finality of Pike's impending execution" in order to review whether her allegations of sexual abuse and rape as a child were fully considered before Pike was sentenced to death. The execution is stayed "until further order of this court," the order stated.

In his dissenting opinion, Judge Richard Allen Griffin called the matter "another last-ditch meritless effort to delay a lawful execution."

In an application asking the Supreme Court to vacate the stay, Tennessee Department of Correction Warden Kenneth Nelsen argued that Pike is not likely to succeed because her claim was "already unsuccessfully presented." The state's "strong interest in finality and the surviving victims' right to closure" also require the high court to vacate the stay, he argued.

Members of Slemmer's family -- including her mother, stepfather and father -- plan to attend Pike's execution, according to Nelsen's filing.

"It is far past time for Colleen's family to receive the closure they seek," the filing stated, asking the Supreme Court to vacate the stay of execution to "avoid rewarding Pike's abusive delay tactics" and "prevent further trauma to Colleen's family."

In a June court filing challenging her execution, Pike argued that due to her history of rape and sexual abuse, being "the lone female in a vulnerable position surrounded by male corrections officers during the last days of her life will trigger her PTSD and result in a torturous execution or mental decompensation to the point she will be incompetent to be executed."

The Tennessee Supreme Court rejected her claims. She subsequently filed an application for stay of execution, requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court review her claims alleging the method of execution would inflict cruel and unusual punishment because of her PTSD from childhood rapes and abuse. The Supreme Court denied that request on Tuesday.

Later that day, Pike filed a motion seeking to review her claim that her trial counsel provided ineffective assistance at sentencing and failed to introduce evidence of her history of child sexual abuse.

In a statement on the stay of execution, Pike's attorney, Stephen Ferrell with the Federal Defenders Services of Eastern Tennessee, said, "The court has stayed this recognizing the serious concerns about Christa's scheduled execution."

In 1996, Pike was found guilty of first-degree murder for beating, torturing and killing Slemmer, a fellow Jobs Corps worker from Knoxville, in a remote area of the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus.

Pike, who was 18 when she committed the crime, had told a friend she planned to kill Slemmer because she "just felt mean that day" and admitted to committing the crime with her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, according to court filings. Shipp was also convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the killing and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

While incarcerated, Pike was convicted in 2001 of attempted first-degree murder in the assault on an inmate, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.