Execution Stay Appeal

Tennessee Asks Supreme Court to Lift Last-Minute Stay on Christa Pike Execution

Christa Gail Pike, sentenced to death in 1995 for the murder of fellow Knoxville student Rachel Smith, could still be executed after Tennessee asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a last-minute stay that halted her execution an hour before it was scheduled to begin. The Supreme Court had not yet ruled on Tennessee's request. The Federal Public Defender's Office warned that the Tennessee Supreme Court would have to set a new execution date if Pike is not executed by the end of Wednesday. The U.K. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit halted Pike's execution in a 2-1 decision, granting her a stay “until further order” while it considers her latest legal filing. Her attorneys argue that Tennessee recently reversed its previous position that she fabricated her sexual abuse and that the state’s acknowledgment of her history of child sexual abuse raises questions about the integrity of subsequent federal proceedings.