Supreme Court Lifts Stay, Paving Way for Christa Pike's Execution

The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for Tennessee to execute Christa Pike, overturning a last-minute stay that had temporarily halted her death sentence. Pike, 50, is scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in approximately 200 years.

Pike was convicted in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The crime occurred when Pike was 18. According to police evidence, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and an accomplice, Shadolla Peterson, lured Slemmer to a wooded area. Pike and Shipp then tortured Slemmer, with Pike carving a pentagram into the victim's chest and taking a piece of her skull as a souvenir. Peterson, who served as a lookout, testified that Pike also carved something into Slemmer's head.

Pike and Shipp were found guilty of first-degree murder. Pike received a death sentence, while Shipp was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Peterson was granted probation in exchange for her cooperation.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a stay of execution, agreeing to consider whether prosecutors had taken into account Pike's history of childhood sexual abuse when she was initially sentenced. Pike's legal team argued that executing her by lethal injection, potentially administered by men, could retraumatize her due to past sexual abuse and PTSD. They had previously suggested an all-female firing squad as an alternative method.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office immediately petitioned the Supreme Court to lift the stay, characterizing the appeals court's decision as a "technical issue." The Supreme Court's order, issued just before 6 p.m., did not include an explanation for its reasoning, though Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

Pike had previously requested to be spared lethal injection due to Buddhist beliefs and later asked for an all-female firing squad. Governor Bill Lee had denied her clemency request.

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, had expressed a desire to witness the execution. A GoFundMe campaign assisted her with travel expenses to be present at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

Pike refused her last meal, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. Her lawyers stated they were "deeply saddened and heartbroken" by the governor's decision and the impending execution, noting her unique position as the first modern-era execution of a teenager offender and the first woman executed by the state in over two centuries.