A federal court on Wednesday ordered a pause on the execution of Christa Pike, convicted of the murder of a classmate in 1995, just hours before she was set to die by lethal injection in Nashville.
Ms. Pike, 50, would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. But her lawyers mounted a fierce last-ditch campaign to stop the execution, arguing that her defense at her initial trial had failed to consider her history of child sexual abuse and neglect.
The ruling came after the Supreme Court on Tuesday had declined to intervene in the execution. Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, also denied a request to allow Ms. Pike to serve out the remainder of her life in prison.
The office of Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee’s attorney general, quickly appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling, calling it a “technical issue” and vowing to “advocate for the lawfully-imposed sentence.”
Tennessee’s “strong interest in finality and the surviving victims’ right to closure require rejection,” the state wrote in its filing.
The execution had been scheduled for 10 a.m. in Nashville.
Reporters and witnesses had gathered Wednesday at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. There were white and purple mums on display outside, near large posters of Colleen Slemmer, the 19-year-old student Ms. Pike and two others tortured and killed in 1995. Ms. Slemmer’s family, steadfast in their support of the execution over three decades, had cobbled together the money needed to drive from their Florida home.
But on Wednesday, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said the pause was necessary to consider the new arguments from Ms. Pike’s legal team and the state’s response.
“The interests of justice and the finality of Pike’s impending execution compel the entry of a short stay of execution in order to properly analyze the parties’ fully briefed arguments,” Judge Jane B. Stranch wrote, joined by Judge Karen Moore.
The court’s order amounted to at least a brief reprieve for Ms. Pike while litigation continues.
It was the latest twist in a decades-long legal battle over the case. The lone woman on Tennessee’s death row, Ms. Pike has expressed remorse for her crime. She was diagnosed and treated while in prison for bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, which her lawyers said had contributed to her violence. Women who were incarcerated alongside Ms. Pike said she was a supportive and kind presence.
But May Martinez, Ms. Slemmer’s mother, remained adamant that Ms. Pike could not atone for the death of her daughter and should be executed.
“Christa Pike’s case has galvanized public opinion like few cases we have seen in recent years,” said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. She added that the last-minute stay “is a kind of high-wire balancing act, when the risks and stakes are at their most extreme.”
In the grassy fields outside the prison, where protesters gathered both in favor and against the death penalty, there was confusion and disbelief over the last-minute intervention. Some people walked away, frustrated that another legal hurdle had temporarily delayed the execution.
“I’m really sort of torn,” said Michelle van Allen, 48, who drove in from Kentucky and stood on the side marked off for supporters of Ms. Pike’s execution and the death penalty. The last-minute stay, she said, was “messing with people’s emotions.”
Across the fence separating the two sides, Veronica Stokes, 42, wiped away tears, emotional as she spoke about Ms. Pike and her opposition to the execution.
The pause, she said, “gives us more time to pray.”
Ann E. Marimow contributed reporting. Seamus Hughes contributed research.
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