Christa Pike's execution was halted on Wednesday, an hour before she was due to receive a lethal injection in Tennessee, after a federal appeals court agreed to review whether evidence of her childhood sexual abuse had been properly considered when she was sentenced to death.
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The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued the stay at around 9am CT, with Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch describing it as a short pause while the court considers the arguments raised by Pike's lawyers, according to Daily Mail.
“To adequately address and resolve the issues now presented to this court and in carefully balancing the equities, we find that a stay of Pike’s execution is necessary,” Stranch said.
The decision came just hours after the US Supreme Court declined to intervene and after Tennessee Gov Bill Lee rejected Pike's request for clemency.
Pike, 50, was due to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries. She was sentenced to death for killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at Knoxville Job Corps, in 1995.
Pike's lawyers have argued that her original defence failed to present sufficient evidence about the abuse and neglect she experienced during childhood. They say the information could have affected the jury's decision to impose the death penalty.
Stephen Ferrell of the Federal Defenders Services of Eastern Tennessee said the appeals court had halted the execution after recognising what he described as serious concerns surrounding the case.
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted in connection with Slemmer's killing. Prosecutors said Pike regarded Slemmer as a romantic rival and that the pair lured her to a wooded area, where she was beaten and stabbed.
Shadolla Peterson, another teenager involved in the incident, admitted to being an accessory and received probation.
Pike has never denied killing Slemmer. Her lawyers have instead focused their challenge on her age at the time of the crime, her traumatic childhood and her mental health.
Ferrell said Pike had been sexually abused from early childhood and was raped at the ages of 11 and 17. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
In a statement included in her clemency petition, Pike acknowledged the impact of the killing and expressed remorse for Slemmer's death.
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected,” Pike said.
Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has continued to support Pike's execution. She has spoken about the decades she has spent waiting for the sentence to be carried out and has described the lasting impact of her daughter's death.
The case attracted national attention because of the circumstances surrounding Slemmer's killing. Prosecutors said Pike used a box cutter and a large piece of asphalt during the attack. Shipp later acknowledged carving a pentagram into Slemmer's body.
The execution has also drawn attention because executions of women remain uncommon in Tennessee and across the US. If carried out, Pike's execution would be Tennessee's first execution of a woman since 1820.
Pike's sentence appeal will now proceed while the Sixth Circuit considers the arguments raised by her lawyers. Her request to challenge her conviction is separate, and a decision has yet to be made on whether that appeal will be allowed to proceed.
