{"id":866551,"date":"2026-10-01T02:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T02:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/866551\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T02:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T02:16:18","slug":"supreme-court-lifts-stay-blocking-christa-pike-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/866551\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court lifts stay blocking Christa Pike execution"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) \u2014 The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted a temporary federal court stay that paused the scheduled execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike<\/a>. This allows Pike’s execution to move forward.<\/p>\n

The high court\u2019s action Wednesday granted Tennessee\u2019s emergency request to vacate the stay issued by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling removes that particular legal barrier to Pike\u2019<\/a>s execution, which had been scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court\u2019s brief majority order did not explain its reasoning or decide the merits of Pike\u2019s underlying legal claim. It also did not state whether Pike\u2019s execution was ultimately carried out or provide a new execution date or time.<\/p>\n

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The dissent argued the 6th Circuit should have been allowed to complete its review before an irreversible execution took place.<\/p>\n

MORE | Tennessee governor denies clemency for death row inmate Christa Pike<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier Wednesday, a divided 6th Circuit panel issued what it called a short stay of execution at 8:17 a.m. CDT, less than two hours before Pike\u2019s scheduled execution.<\/p>\n

The appeals court said it needed time to consider a procedural question involving Pike\u2019s request to reopen her earlier federal habeas case. The order did not overturn Pike\u2019s conviction or death sentence.<\/p>\n

Pike\u2019s attorneys argue Tennessee\u2019s recent acknowledgment that she suffered severe childhood sexual abuse and rape undermines the foundation of earlier court proceedings.<\/p>\n

During an August hearing in a separate challenge, a state attorney said Tennessee did not dispute the \u201cterrible things\u201d Pike had suffered and did not intend to minimize her trauma.<\/p>\n

Pike\u2019s attorneys contend earlier courts treated her abuse history differently while considering her claim that trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate and present mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase.<\/p>\n

The Tennessee Attorney General\u2019s Office told FOX 17 News:<\/p>\n

“We will continue to advocate for the lawfully-imposed sentence as the courts work through this technical issue. It is common in capital cases for the defense to raise last-minute objections following decades of litigation in numerous courts. We are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to lift the stay.”<\/p>\n

Pike had asked the 6th Circuit to allow her to reopen her 2016 federal habeas case under Rule 60(b)(6), a rule that can permit a court to revisit a final judgment in extraordinary circumstances.<\/p>\n

A federal district court transferred that request to the 6th Circuit, finding it should be treated as a second or successive habeas petition. Pike challenged that conclusion, and the 6th Circuit\u2019s temporary stay was meant to allow the court to examine the issue.<\/p>\n

RELATED COVERAGE | Christa Pike could have taken a plea deal to live. Why was she told not to?<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Tennessee<\/p>\n

Tennessee granted a temporary stay of execution for Christa Pike on Wednesday, Sept.30, 2026, the day of her scheduled execution for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, pictured here. (Photo: SBG)<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court had already denied Pike\u2019s separate request to stop the execution based on challenges to Tennessee\u2019s lethal injection protocol and the process for litigating those claims.<\/p>\n

Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville<\/a> reportedly over jealousy involving the boyfriend.<\/p>\n

The couple lured Slemmer into a wooded area, cut her with a box cutter, cutting a pentagram on her body, beat her with a large chunk of asphalt and carved out a piece of her skull. Pike had reportedly bragged about the ordeal. <\/p>\n

Pike was sentenced to death while her boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison. Pike’s attorney wants her age at the time to be considered, but others want justice.<\/p>\n

Pike\u2019s case has drawn national attention, including debate over capital punishment, her age at the time of the crime, and the role her childhood trauma should play in evaluating her sentence.<\/p>\n

To view the court documents in its entirety, see below:<\/p>\n

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Order to StayPDF previewPreview PDF<\/p>\n

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Order to Stay<\/p>\n

View PDF<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a breaking news story. Check back as we learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) \u2014 The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted a temporary federal court stay that paused the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-866551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}