A federal appeals court halted the execution of Christa Pike, scheduled for Wednesday morning, approximately an hour before it was set to begin. The court indicated a need to review Pike's allegations of sexual abuse and rape during her childhood, and whether these claims were adequately considered during her sentencing.

Pike, now 50, was convicted in 1995 for a murder committed when she was 18 years old. Her execution would have marked the first time a woman was put to death in Tennessee in at least two centuries. Execution witnesses had already gathered at the River Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the stay was issued around 9 a.m. CDT. It remains unclear if state officials will appeal the decision or how long the delay might last.

Pike and her then-boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at a Knoxville job training facility. The case gained notoriety partly due to a pentagram carved into Slemmer's body, which fueled fears of Satanic worship during the 1980s and 1990s.

While Pike does not dispute committing the murder, her legal team and supporters argue that her youth at the time, coupled with her history of severe sexual abuse and mental illness, should be taken into account. Her defense has pointed out that other 18-year-olds sentenced to death in Tennessee have had their sentences overturned.

The U.S. Supreme Court had previously denied a request from Pike's attorneys to halt the execution. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee had also denied her clemency request on Monday.

In a statement included in her clemency petition, Pike stated, "I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime."

Colleen Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has expressed a desire for the execution to proceed, stating she has waited decades for the sentence to be carried out. Martinez recounted the pain her daughter must have experienced during the attack.

Prosecutors stated that in January 1995, Pike lured Slemmer to a wooded area, fearing Slemmer was attempting to steal her boyfriend. Pike reportedly used a box cutter on Slemmer and struck her with a large piece of asphalt. Pike's boyfriend, who was 17 at the time of the crime, admitted to carving a pentagram into Slemmer’s body. He received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, while Pike was the only one sentenced to death.

Executing women is a rarity nationwide. Since 1976, only 18 women have been executed in the U.S., representing approximately 1% of all executions. The most recent execution of a woman was Amber McLaughlin in Missouri in 2023. In 2021, Lisa Montgomery became the first female inmate executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years.