Court halts Christa Pike execution one hour before scheduled
A US appeals court halted Pike's execution to review her claim that childhood sexual abuse was not adequately considered during sentencing.
A Tennessee appeals court stopped the execution of Christa Pike about an hour before she was set to die. Pike is now 50 years old and would have been the first woman Tennessee executed in more than 200 years.
The court ordered a stay to review her claim that judges did not properly weigh her childhood trauma and sexual abuse during sentencing. Pike's clemency petition, which highlighted years of violence, neglect and rape, was denied by Governor Bill Lee.
She would be the only person in the modern era executed in Tennessee for a crime committed as a teenager. Pike was 18 in 1995 when she and two companions killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate at their Knoxville Job Corps centre.
Tennessee's attorney general immediately asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the stay.
Why it mattersThe case raises questions about how courts weigh childhood trauma in death sentences and whether young offenders should face execution decades later.
AustraliaNo direct Australian effect, though the case has drawn international attention and statements from UN human rights experts calling for commutation.
Corroborated bycanberratimes.com.au
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