US Supreme Court clears way for Christa Pike’s execution in Tennessee

The United States Supreme Court has cleared the way for the state of Tennessee to execute Christa Pike, overturning a last-minute stay that had stalled the state’s first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.

Pike, 50, was initially scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday morning for a killing she committed at age 18, and witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay.

The court said a delay was needed to consider whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority did not explain their new order, while the three liberal members signed a dissent saying Pike’s claims deserved a closer look.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction said it would proceed with Pike’s execution on Wednesday night ahead of a midnight cut-off on the state’s execution order.

Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted of the fatal stabbing and beating in 1995 of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.

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