A federal appeals court granted a temporary stay of execution for Christa Pike on the morning of September 30, 2026, just hours before she was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection in Tennessee. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ordered the pause “until further order of this court” so a three-judge panel could fully review arguments in the case.

Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. She was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike was 18 years old at the time of the crime—the youngest age at which a person can receive a death sentence under current U.S. law. If the execution had proceeded, she would have become the first woman executed by the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years and the first person put to death there in the modern era for a crime committed at age 18.

The stay came after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene the previous day and after Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied a clemency request. Lee stated that after careful review he would uphold the sentence and would not intervene. Pike’s attorneys had sought to reopen long-closed federal habeas proceedings, citing the state’s recent acknowledgment that she had been a victim of childhood Sєxual abuse and rape. The appeals court majority found that a short stay was necessary to properly examine the fully briefed arguments.

Pike declined to select a method of execution. Because her crime occurred before 1999, Tennessee law allows eligible inmates to choose between lethal injection and the electric chair; when no choice is made, the default is lethal injection. She also declined to choose a last meal.

Her former boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the crime and also participated, was sentenced to life in prison. He remains incarcerated after being denied parole.

Outside Riverbend Maximum Security Insтιтution in Nashville, where the execution was set to take place, supporters and demonstrators gathered. Some practiced meditation and expressed beliefs about compᴀssion, while others highlighted broader concerns about the death penalty. Media witnesses were still escorted into the facility even after the stay was announced, as the situation remained fluid.

As of the morning of September 30, the length of the “short stay” was unclear. Pike’s legal team stated they did not yet know when the court would issue a further ruling. The case continues to draw national attention as Tennessee’s first potential execution of a woman in two centuries hangs in temporary legal limbo.

Sources: The New York Times, Reuters.