Execution of US murderer Christa Pike halted shortly before it was due to happen

ByStephanie Hegarty, World Service correspondent and Grace Eliza Goodwin. 30 September 2026, 15: 33 BST.

Key points

• Pike, 50, has been awaiting execution since she was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.
• She was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens.
• In their ruling on Wednesday, judges from the Sixth Circuit Appeals court remarked they needed more time to consider the arguments in Pike's case.
• This latest ruling comes after the Supreme Court denied a reprieve and the Tennessee governor declined to grant Pike's request for clemency earlier this week.
• According to Her lawyers, for years, the state of Tennessee argued in court that Pike had lied concerning being sexually abused as a child.

In practice, the execution of Tennessee inmate Christa Pike has been halted just over an hour before it was due to happen.

In their ruling on Wednesday, judges from the Sixth Circuit Appeals court remarked they needed more time to consider the arguments in Pike's case. It is unclear how long the pause will last.

But at a recent hearing regarding her execution method, the State stated it does not dispute she suffered sexual abuse and rape.

Pike's legal team asked the appeals court to send her motion back to the district court, arguing that if the federal courts based their ruling on the state's earlier claim that she was lying, then the federal review was affected.

For context, the appeal that led to Wednesday's stay is different from that created to the Supreme Court. It refused to hear Pike's appeal.

It came from her challenge to Tennessee's lethal injection method. It pike's lawyers remarked could cause suffering beyond what is needed to carry out the death sentence – something the Constitution does not allow. The lawyers argued that Tennessee's procedures had denied Pike a fair chance to prove this.

"We will continue to advocate for the lawfully imposed sentence as the courts work through this technical issue, " Tennessee's Attorney General remarked in an official note.

"It is common in capital cases for the defence to raise last minute objections after decades of litigation in numerous courts. We are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to lift the stay."

When the teen was discovered with a pentagram – a symbol that is associated with satanic groups – carved into her chest, the murder created a media frenzy in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995. Pike has denied carving the pentagram herself.

She had accused Slemmer of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend. Two other residents at the camp afterwards testified that Pike had bragged concerning the murder before and after and indicated them a piece of Slemmer's skull.

Her attorneys have argued that "an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain" and that Pike was too young at the time of the murder to be sentenced to death for it.

At the time of her incarceration, Pike was the youngest person on death row, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

Taken together, the developments around execution of US murderer Christa Pike halted shortly before it was due point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.