US Supreme Court allows Christa Gail Pike’s execution in Tennessee to go forward
This photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Tennessee may proceed with the execution of Christa Gail Pike, overturning a last-minute stay that was issued by an appeals court hours earlier.
Pike, 50, was scheduled to die by lethal injection in the morning for the 1995 stabbing and beating of a classmate, and witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay. That court said a delay was needed to consider whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.