NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WOKI / WVLT) – The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Tennessee may move forward with the execution of death row inmate Christa Gail Pike, overturning a last-minute stay issued Wednesday by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and ending the latest legal hurdle in one of Tennessee’s most closely watched death penalty cases.
The high court voted 6-3 to vacate the appeals court’s order, allowing Tennessee to proceed with Pike’s execution. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, arguing Pike’s claims deserved additional review before the state carried out the sentence.
Pike, now 50, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the brutal 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer while both women were attending the Job Corps program in Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, along with Tadaryl Shipp and Shadolla Peterson, lured Slemmer into the woods and killed her over a relationship dispute. Evidence showed a pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s chest and part of her skull was kept as a souvenir.
Pike’s attorneys have spent years challenging her death sentence, arguing jurors never heard the full extent of the severe abuse, sexual assaults and neglect she endured as a child. In their most recent appeal, defense attorneys claimed the state later acknowledged aspects of Pike’s traumatic upbringing, information they contend should have been fully presented during sentencing.
The Sixth Circuit temporarily halted the execution Wednesday morning to consider those arguments. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s office immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sided with the state Wednesday evening.
What Time Will the Execution Happen?
As of late Wednesday evening, the Tennessee Department of Correction has said the execution will proceed Wednesday night before the midnight expiration of the execution warrant. Officials have not publicly announced a specific new execution time following the hours-long court delays. The original execution had been scheduled for 10 a.m. Central Time (11 a.m. Eastern) before the federal appeals court stay interrupted the process.
A TDOC spokesperson told media outlets the state intends to complete the execution before the warrant expires at midnight.
If the sentence is carried out, Pike will become the first woman executed in Tennessee since the early 1800s and the first female inmate put to death in the state in the modern era.
