NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) – The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted a federal court stay that halted the scheduled execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike. The high court’s action Wednesday granted Tennessee’s emergency request to vacate the stay issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The ruling removes that particular legal barrier to Pike’s execution, which had been scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The Supreme Court’s brief majority order did not explain its reasoning or decide the merits of Pike’s underlying legal claim. He also did not indicate whether Pike’s execution ultimately took place or provide a new execution date or time. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, along with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The dissent argued that the Sixth Circuit should have been allowed to complete its review before irreversible execution took place.MORE | The governor of Tennessee denies clemency to death row inmate Christa Pike. Earlier on Wednesday, a divided Sixth Circuit panel issued what it called a brief stay of execution at 8:17 a.m. CDT, less than two hours before Pike was scheduled to be executed. The appeals court said it needed time to consider a procedural issue related to Pike’s request to reopen his earlier federal habeas case. The order did not overturn Pike’s conviction or death sentence. Pike’s attorneys argue that Tennessee’s recent acknowledgment that she suffered severe sexual abuse and rape as a child undermines the foundations of previous court proceedings. During a hearing in August in a separate challenge, a state prosecutor said Tennessee did not dispute the “terrible things” Pike had suffered and had no intention of minimizing his trauma. Pike’s attorneys maintain that previous courts treated his history of abuse differently when considering his claim that trial attorneys failed to adequately investigate and present mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office told FOX 17 News: “We will continue to advocate for the legally imposed sentence as the courts resolve this technical issue. It is common in capital cases for the defense to raise last-minute objections after decades of litigation in numerous courts. We are asking the United States Supreme Court to lift the stay.” Pike had asked the Sixth Circuit to allow him to reopen his 2016 federal habeas case under Rule 60(b)(6), a rule that can allow a court to review a final judgment in extraordinary circumstances. A federal district court transferred that request to the Sixth Circuit, finding that it should be treated as a second or subsequent habeas petition. Pike disputed that conclusion, and the Sixth Circuit’s temporary stay was intended to allow the court to examine the issue. RELATED COVERAGE | Christa Pike could have taken a live-in deal. Why did they tell him not to do it? Tennessee granted a temporary stay of execution to Christa Pike on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, the day of her scheduled execution for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, pictured. (Photo: SBG) The Supreme Court had already denied Pike’s separate request to halt the execution based on challenges to Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol and the process for litigating those claims. Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating classmate Colleen Slemmer, 19, in Knoxville, allegedly out of jealousy involving her boyfriend. The pair lured Slemmer to a wooded area, slashed her with a box cutter and cut out a pentagram. on her body, they hit her with a large piece of asphalt and cut off a piece of her skull. Pike had reportedly bragged about the ordeal. Pike was sentenced to death while her boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison. Pike’s attorney wants his age at the time to be taken into account, but others want justice. Pike’s case has attracted national attention, including debate over capital punishment, his age at the time of the crime and the role his childhood trauma should play in evaluating his sentence. Please check back as we learn more.
