
6th Circuit Court Halts Pike Execution Hours Before Scheduled Injection
The US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay on the execution of Christa Pike less than two hours before her scheduled lethal injection on September 30, 2026. The court is reviewing arguments that her sentencing failed to adequately consider evidence of severe childhood sexual abuse and mental illness. Tennessee officials immediately petitioned the US Supreme Court to lift the stay. Pike, 50, would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years and the 19th woman executed in the US since 1976. Her case involves the 1995 murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer, a crime that drew intense media attention and debate over Pike’s culpability given her history of trauma and the conduct of her trial attorneys.












