The Christa Pike execution was halted on September 30, 2026, after the Sixth Circuit granted a temporary stay. Tennessee asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the order as the legal fight over Pike’s death sentence continued.
A federal appeals court temporarily halted the execution of Christa Gail Pike on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, shortly before Tennessee was scheduled to put her to death by lethal injection.
The intervention prevented, at least temporarily, what would have been Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in more than 200 years. Pike, 50, is the only woman currently on Tennessee’s death row.
Sixth Circuit grants execution stay
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a short stay while it considers legal arguments seeking to reopen an earlier federal habeas proceeding.
Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10 a.m. Central Time at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The appeals court intervened shortly before the scheduled lethal injection.
The decision came one day after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a separate application from Pike seeking to stop the execution. The Court also denied her petition for review on September 29.
Tennessee asks Supreme Court to lift stay
Following the Sixth Circuit ruling, Tennessee filed an emergency application asking the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the stay and allow the execution to proceed.
The legal dispute centers in part on Pike’s arguments that her history of childhood abuse, trauma and her age at the time of the crime were not adequately considered during sentencing.
Pike convicted in 1995 killing
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike was 18 when the crime occurred and was sentenced to death in 1996.
Her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the killing, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Clemency request denied
Pike’s attorneys sought to have her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, citing her youth at the time of the crime, childhood trauma and mental health history.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee denied Pike’s clemency request on September 28, 2026, saying he would allow the state’s sentence to stand.
The execution remains subject to the ongoing federal court fight. Tennessee’s request to overturn the Sixth Circuit stay placed the case back before the U.S. Supreme Court, making further court action the key next development.
