Teenage killer Christa Pike has been cleared for execution after the United States Supreme Court overruled a last-minute stay.
Pike, now 50, had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10am on Wednesday for the 1995 slaying of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in a fit of jealous rage.
But the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an order early Wednesday morning staying Pike’s execution ‘until further order of this court.’
It came after a judge agreed to consider whether prosecutors took into account the childhood sexual abuse she suffered when she was first sentenced.
‘The court has stayed this, recognizing the serious concerns about Christa’s scheduled execution,’ Stephen Ferrell, of the Federal Defenders Services of Eastern Tennessee, said at the time.
After the sensational turn of events, the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office said it is asking the US Supreme Court to lift the pause on her execution, calling the decision a ‘technical issue,’ according to The Tennessean.
The order overruling the stay then came in just before 6pm.
Supreme Court justices did not explain their reasoning for siding with state prosecutors in the brief two-sentence order, but the court’s three liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – dissented.
Pike will now be the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
Christa Pike, now 50, was just 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row
She was convicted at the age of 18 in March 1996 for brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer (pictured) to death
Pike was convicted at the age of 18 in March 1996 for brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer to death.
She initially demanded she be spared a lethal injection because of her Buddhist beliefs. Earlier this month, she asked for an all-female firing squad to carry out her killing, with her lawyers citing the abuse she experienced as a child.
Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and an accomplice, Shadolla Peterson, also helped lure Slemmer to a wooded area before the couple tortured her to death.
The pair carved a pentagram into the teen’s chest, and Peterson testified that he saw Pike also carve something into Slemmer’s head, police evidence showed.
Pike also took a piece of her skull as a souvenir, according to investigators.
Slemmer attempted to run for her life, but the couple captured her again and continued the gruesome torture that lasted about 30 minutes to an hour, Pike estimated.
Pike and Shipp were both found guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to death, and he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Peterson, then 18, served as a lookout for the couple during the deadly attack and was granted probation in exchange for her cooperation.
Christa Gail Pike being escorted from Knox County Criminal Court on March 30, 1996, after being sentenced to death for the murder of Colleen Slemmer
Pike was assisted by her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and their classmate Shadolla Peterson (right)
Just hours before her planned execution, Pike refused her last meal, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Inmates are typically given $20 to spend on their last meal, according to The Tennessean. The state still planned to provide Pike with a meal.
Her refusal came after Governor Bill Lee denied her clemency request and the US Supreme Court declined to stop the execution.
Pike’s lawyers said they were ‘deeply saddened and heartbroken’ by the governor’s decision.
‘Moving ahead with her execution puts the State of Tennessee on singular footing,’ they said in a statement to Fox 17.
‘Christa will be the first person Tennessee executes in the modern death penalty era who was a teenager at the time of the offense, and the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.’
Kathleen Walter prayed in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution ahead of Pike’s scheduled execution
Pike had asked for an all-female firing squad to kill her instead of lethal injection after previously asking to be hanged, the New York Post reported.
Her lawyers cited her post-traumatic stress disorder from years of abuse she suffered at the hands of men as a young girl, including when she was two years old.
Because of that, they requested that an all-female team handle her execution because she has trauma from men.
‘[Lethal injection administered by men] will increase the likelihood that an 8th Amendment violation will occur,’ Pike’s lawyer Stephen Ferrell said.
‘There is an increased risk of pain and suffering.’
According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Pike was a victim of child sexual abuse, multiple rapes and attempted suicide at age 12.
When she was 17, she was allegedly grabbed by a stranger by the side of the road and raped. Police never arrested a suspect.
She allegedly killed Colleen Slemmer almost one year to the day after the rape.
Slemmer’s heartbroken mother, May Martinez, previously told the Daily Mail she wanted to watch her daughter’s murderer die while sitting in the front-row seat at her now halted execution
Slemmer’s heartbroken mother, May Martinez, previously told the Daily Mail she wanted to watch her daughter’s murderer die while sitting in the front-row seat at her now halted execution.
She and other execution witnesses had gathered at the jail when the order to halt Pike’s death was issued.
A large media presence, including international reporters, also convened at the jail for the planned execution, according to The Tennessean.
Martinez almost didn’t make it to Pike’s near-execution because of travel expenses, but a GoFundMe page helped her afford to do so.
‘They truly cannot believe how many people have stepped up, donated, shared, prayed, and simply shown that they care. They are beyond grateful for every single one of you,’ the fundraiser wrote on Sunday.
‘You helped make sure they could be there for Colleen. And that means more than words can say.’
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
