Court Halts Execution of Tennessee’s First Woman in 200 Years

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the execution of Christa Pike, the first woman slated for lethal injection in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

By Felo News Desk · Published Wed, 30 Sep 2026 18:31:15 GMT

A federal appeals court issued a last‑minute stay of execution for Christa Pike, the first woman scheduled for lethal injection in Tennessee in over two centuries.

What happened

Christa Pike, 50, was due to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Barely an hour before the scheduled time, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a ruling that temporarily halted the execution.

What the reports add

CBS News reported that the stay was granted just minutes before the execution was to begin, describing the move as a “temporary halt” of the lethal injection.
Gulf News noted that the court’s order cited “the interests of justice and the finality of Pike’s impending execution” as reasons to pause and review the parties’ fully briefed arguments.
The Gulf News article added that only 18 women have been executed in the United States since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
It also reported that the U.S. Supreme Court had rejected an application for a stay of execution earlier that day.
Independent UN human‑rights experts called on the U.S. government and Tennessee authorities to “immediately halt” the execution and commute her sentence.

What was said

The interests of justice and the finality of Pike's impending execution compel the entry of a short stay of execution in order to properly analyze the parties' fully briefed arguments.

The court order was quoted verbatim by Gulf News.

She was 18 when she committed her crime, and she was deeply mentally ill.

That line came from a clemency petition filed by Pike’s lawyers to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who said he would not intervene.

Pike's execution would mark the culmination of a trajectory of severe physical and psychological suffering marked by childhood abuse and nearly three decades of solitary confinement on death row.

UN rights experts said this in a statement cited by Gulf News.

How it came about

Pike was convicted for the 1993 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer, whom she and her boyfriend killed when Pike was 18. The case drew national attention after Slemmer’s body was found with a pentagram carved into her chest. The stay follows arguments that Pike was sexually abused as a child, suffered post‑traumatic stress disorder, and has a blood condition that could cause “needless suffering” during lethal injection. Her lawyers sought clemency on the grounds of her age at the time of the crime and mental‑health issues, but Governor Lee declined to act.

Key facts

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of Christa Pike's execution on September 30, 2026. (gulfnews.com)
Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. (gulfnews.com)
The stay was granted less than an hour before the scheduled lethal injection. (cbsnews.com)