The execution of Tennessee inmate Christa Pike has been halted an hour before it was due to happen. Pike, 50, has been awaiting execution since she was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer. In their ruling on Wednesday, judges from the Sixth Circuit Appeals court said they needed more time to consider the arguments in Pike's case.
This latest ruling comes after the US Supreme Court denied a reprieve and the Tennessee governor declined to grant Pike's request for clemency earlier this week. Her lawyers said that for years, the state of Tennessee argued in court that Pike had lied about being sexually abused as a child. But at a recent hearing about her execution method, the State said it does not dispute that she suffered sexual abuse and rape.
Pike's legal team asked the appeals court to send her motion back to the district court, arguing that if the federal courts based their ruling on the state's earlier claim that she was lying, then the federal review were affected. Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens. This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
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US Supreme Court denies Christa Pike's last-ditch bid to halt execution
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