{"id":226139,"date":"2026-10-01T01:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T01:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/tennessee-halts-plan-to-execute-woman-for-first-time-in-200-years-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T01:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T01:59:15","slug":"tennessee-halts-plan-to-execute-woman-for-first-time-in-200-years-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/tennessee-halts-plan-to-execute-woman-for-first-time-in-200-years-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee halts plan to execute woman for first time in 200 years – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pike, sentenced to death over 1995 murder, set to be executed Wednesday night after justices lift lower-court ruling
Tennessee is set to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years on Wednesday, after the US supreme court lifted a lower-court ruling that put her execution on pause earlier in the day.
Christa Pike, who was convicted of murder 30 years ago, was initially scheduled to die by lethal injection<\/a> on Wednesday morning until her execution was halted hours earlier by a federal appeals court.
In a 2-1 ruling, that court said the delay was necessary to assess whether Pike\u2019s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing. The state governor and the supreme court had earlier refused calls for clemency.
Tennessee\u2019s attorney general immediately appealed the ruling to the supreme court, writing that the 11th-hour stay rewarded \u201cabusive delay tactics by Pike\u2019s attorneys\u201d, according to the Associated Press.
The US supreme court sided with Tennessee in an order signed by justice Brett Kavanaugh. A Tennessee department of correction spokesperson said the execution would proceed on Wednesday night.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by fellow liberal justices Elena Kagan and Kentanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the court\u2019s order \u201cbecause its decision clears the way for the state to execute Pike before her still-pending legal challenges to her conviction can be properly considered\u201d.
Pike, who is now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend, who was 17 at the time, killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, one of their classmates at Knoxville Job Corps in 1995.
The case garnered nationwide headlines due to the ages of those involved and the brutality of the murder.
According to prosecutors, Pike was worried Slemmer was trying to take her then boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, away fom her. Together, they lured Slemmer into a wooded area behind the agriculture campus steam plant at the University of Tennessee on 12 January 1995. Pike cut Slemmer\u2019s stomach and throat with a box cutter before smashing her head with a rock.
Shipp carved a pentagram into Slemmer\u2019s chest and Pike later showed a friend a fragment of Slemmer\u2019s skull.
Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 and was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Pike has never denied her involvement in Slemmer\u2019s killing and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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\u201cI was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I\u2019d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone\u2019s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,\u201d Pike said in a statement that was included in her clemency petition.
On Saturday, May Martinez, Slemmer\u2019s mother, said she was waiting for Pike\u2019s execution.
\u201cEvery time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,\u201d Martinez told the Associated Press, adding: \u201cNot a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst.\u201d
The Associated Press contributed reporting<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pike, sentenced to death over 1995 murder, set to be executed Wednesday night after justices lift lower-court rulingTennessee is set to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years on Wednesday, after the US supreme court lifted a lower-court ruling that put her execution on pause earlier in the day.Christa Pike, who was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":226140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}