A federal appeals court halted the planned execution of Christa Pike, 50, in Tennessee on Wednesday an hour before it was scheduled to take place.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit stayed the execution until further notice. The judges said they want to review whether her allegations of sexual abuse and rape as a child were fully considered before she was sentenced to death.
Pike was convicted of murdering a classmate in 1995 when she was 18 years old. In 1996, she was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy. She has been in prison for more than 30 years.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Pike and her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, tortured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, slashed her with a box cutter and meat cleaver, carved a satanic pentagram symbol into her chest, smashed her head with a rock, and took a fragment of her skull as a souvenir.
Pike committed the murder over an intense romantic jealousy of Slemmer, who allegedly attempted to steal her boyfriend’s attention.
On Monday, Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) rejected Pike’s request for clemency. A day later, the Supreme Court denied her emergency application for a stay.
A three-judge panel for the federal appeals court determined a “short stay” was necessary to consider the parties’ arguments. It remains unclear how short the stay will be.
The eleventh-hour ruling marks a win for Pike and her supporters. Anti-death penalty advocates rallied outside the Tennessee State Capitol this month, petitioning the state government to stop the execution.
TENNESSEE PREPARES TO EXECUTE THE FIRST WOMAN IN OVER 200 YEARS
Pike was set to be killed by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Wednesday local time. If the execution proceeded, she would have been the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.
Should the court keep the execution in place, Pike will receive the death penalty at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.