Christa Pike was supposed to be executed today, but a federal appeals court has halted it at the last hour.
JUST IN: A federal appeals court halted the execution in Tennessee of Christa Pike about an hour before it was set to begin Wednesday. https://t.co/JmqLBh48Rp
— ABC News (@ABC) September 30, 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A federal appeals court halted the execution in Tennessee of Christa Pike about an hour before it was set to begin Wednesday.
The judges said they want to review whether her allegations of sexual abuse and rape as a child were fully considered before she was sentenced to death.
This would have been the state’s first execution of a woman in at least 200 years. Now 50, she was convicted of a 1995 murder she committed at age 18.
Pike does not deny killing the woman.
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville.
The case garnered widespread attention at the time in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer's body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s. As the execution date drew near, it renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.
Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider Pike’s age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler. Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds sentenced to death in Tennessee have had their sentences vacated.
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It would have been the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in over 200 years.
She tortured a teenage girl in the woods, carved up her body, and kept a souvenir of her skull. What’s the hold up? https://t.co/8PzRM2Y7ii
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) September 30, 2026
It was very sick.
She's still trying to pick the perfect outfit https://t.co/YOcmdICmGM
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) September 30, 2026
She refused her last meal last night.
after the victims parents raised all that $$$ to get there...... https://t.co/QwYtZJBW42 pic.twitter.com/QkSfJuFO3r
— The Ed of an Era (@PoeEd1) September 30, 2026
no way ?? i can’t imagine how the victim’s mother feels. traveling all the way from florida https://t.co/C2TNFWc9ZL
— auri 𖾕𖾝꙼ᩚ𛲕𖾟 (@meganpetesbnr) September 30, 2026
It's very kind of people on Twitter to consider the victim's family. The justice system surely does not.
Let's see. Luring a romantic rival into the woods, kicking her in the head, carving her up with a box cutter, kicking her some more, then opening her belly before slitting her throat--that's not enough for the death penalty? https://t.co/qJiy39geDR
— Tea Party Environmentalist (@TPEnviron) September 30, 2026
Female privilege https://t.co/VD52x18l7O
— McClain (@DadGroyper) September 30, 2026
It seems that way. It's too bad her victim didn't get that same privilege.
"I'm sorry I cut you up and drank wine from your skull. I was molested."
— Rhonda Rhoades (@NewWaveIngenue) September 30, 2026
That's basically her defense.
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