US Supreme Court Authorizes Execution of Christa Pike, First Woman Hanged in Over Two Centuries

The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for death row inmate Christa Pike to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

The justices overturned a last‑minute reprieve that was granted by an appeals court on Wednesday morning, preventing the execution of Christa Pike roughly an hour before her scheduled sentencing date.

Tennessee’s attorney general had requested a reversal from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit shortly before the SC rule.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death in 1996 for murdering Colleen Slemmer, a 19‑year‑old victim she learned of at a job‑training camp for troubled teenagers.

On Wednesday, Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh granted the application to vacate the stay of her execution, ending the last‑minute injunction that had been issued on the day prior.

The three liberal justices—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson—issued a dissent, arguing that the ruling effectively allowed Tennessee to proceed with Pike’s death before her pending legal challenges to her conviction were fully resolved.

“The state’s drive to move swiftly toward Pike’s execution cannot outweigh her fundamental interest in life,” Sotomayor warned.

This decision comes just minutes before the noon midnight deadline for the current execution order and follows a June‑date pause ordered by the Sixth Circuit.

Should the clock run past the order, the Tennessee Supreme Court would need to establish a new execution window, according to reports from the Associated Press.

Earlier in the day, judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit temporarily halted any further action, stating they required additional time to examine the issues presented.

Defense counsel alleged that the state’s argument hinging on claims that Pike had fabricated childhood sexual abuse allegations was flawed, yet during a recent hearing the authority conceded that she experienced such trauma.

The ruling marks the second consecutive day in which the Supreme Court has authorized lethal‑injection executions, following a prior opinion where the justices rejected a separate appeal from Pike.

Additionally, Tennessee’s governor denied Pike’s latest clemency petition later this week.

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