A US Federal Court of Appeals has, at the eleventh hour, stayed the execution of 50-year-old Christy Pike — the only woman on death row in the state of Tennessee. She was due to be executed by lethal injection on 30 September for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slummer, committed in 1995. The judges decided to give further consideration to the defence’s arguments regarding whether the sexualised abuse Pike suffered as a child and other circumstances had been properly taken into account when the death sentence was handed down.
- Christy Pike’s execution in Tennessee was halted about an hour before it was due to take place.
- The Federal Court of Appeal has issued a temporary injunction.
- Paik was sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Collin Slammer in 1995.
- At the time of the offence, Pike was 18 years old.
The execution was called off at the last minute
Implementation death sentence It was scheduled for the morning of 30 September at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. About an hour before the lethal injection was due to be administered, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a so-called a short-term deferral of the sentence. The court explained that it needed more time to consider the parties’ legal arguments.
The stay of execution is, for the time being, provisional. The Attorney General of Tennessee has appealed to the US Supreme Court to overturn the appeal court’s ruling. As of the latest reports, a final decision on the fate of the execution was still pending.
Why did the court decide to hear the case again?
Pike’s defence team argues that, when the death penalty was imposed, insufficient account was taken of the circumstances of her childhood, in particular reports of sexualised abuse, cruelty and neglect. Her lawyers also point to her young age at the time of the offence — Pike was 18 years old.
The Court of Appeal has decided to take more time to determine whether the new arguments could provide grounds for a retrial of the part of her case relating specifically to the sentencing.
What was Krista Pike convicted of?
Christa Pike was convicted of the murder of her 19-year-old fellow student, Colleen Slammer, in Knoxville in 1995. According to the case file, Pike and two other young men lured the girl to a remote location, where they killed her. The following year, the court sentenced Pike to death.
Paike herself does not deny her responsibility for the murder. For many years, her defence team has been seeking to have the death penalty commuted to life imprisonment.
Two days before the scheduled execution, the Governor of Tennessee Bill Lee refused to grant her a pardon.
The first execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than two centuries
The case attracted particular attention due to the extreme rarity of women being executed in the US. Had the death sentence been carried out, Pike would have become the first woman to be executed by the State of Tennessee in over 200 years. Accurate early historical records are incomplete, but the last such execution is generally dated to the early 19th century.
In total, since the death penalty was reinstated in the US in 1976, only 18 women. They account for approximately 1% of all death sentences carried out in the country during this period.
Christy Pike’s future now depends on the court proceedings and the decision regarding a temporary stay of execution.
