In a stunning eleventh-hour turn, Christa Pike will not be executed Wednesday—at least not yet.

Right after Charisma reported on the Tennessee death row inmate’s unusual comments about feeling a “kinship” with Lindsay Clancy, a federal appeals court stepped in and temporarily halted Pike’s execution.

BREAKING: A federal appeals court halts the execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike about an hour before she was set to die by lethal injection.

Execution witnesses had already gathered at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the order came down… pic.twitter.com/gY3WXkyXdE

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 30, 2026

WBIR Channel 10 reported that the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay Wednesday while it considers a new legal challenge in Pike’s case. The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that another review was necessary, with one judge dissenting.

The intervention came after Pike appeared to have run out of options. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declined to intervene, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Pike, now 50, was just 18 when she murdered fellow student Colleen Slemmer in 1995.

As Charisma reported earlier Wednesday, the crime carried a chilling Satanic element. Pike stabbed and beat Slemmer to death, carved a pentagram into her chest and took part of her skull as a trophy.

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Pike was scheduled to become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Then, with her execution rapidly approaching, the case took another dramatic turn.

For now, Pike remains on death row. The appeals court’s stay does not overturn her conviction or death sentence. Instead, it temporarily prevents Tennessee from carrying out the execution while the court considers this latest legal challenge.

Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the newly released book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].