Appeals court grants last-gasp stay of execution for Tennessee’s only female death-row inmate

Christa Pike, who would have been the first woman executed by Tennessee in over two centuries, got a last-minute stay from the Sixth Circuit while it weighs her latest appeal. Pike was convicted with her boyfriend in the 1995 torture-murder of classmate Colleen Slemmer; she has never disputed killing her. Her appeal centers on Tennessee's recent reversal acknowledging her history of sexual abuse, claims the state once disputed and that she says should have carried more weight at sentencing.

The panel split two to one. Judge Stranch found the state's about-face on the abuse claims worth a closer look, while dissenting Judge Griffin called the filing a meritless attempt to relitigate a claim already rejected, barred under federal habeas law.

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