Tennessee stays execution of Christa Pike

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) – The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to authorize the execution of Christa Pike.

This is a decision that the state says has already been reviewed by the courts and is an attempt to re-examine a claim. This comes after a federal appeals court stayed Pike’s execution, documents obtained by FOX 17 News reveal.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted a temporary stay of Pike’s execution at 8:17 a.m. CT, according to the court clerk. Pike was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday, September 30 at 10 a.m.

The central argument in the filing is that the state has now changed its position regarding his history of sexual abuse and rape during his childhood. According to Pike, the state had previously treated her as having fabricated the abuse, but recently admitted that she had indeed suffered the abuse.

She argues that this reversal “erodes the foundation” of prior legal proceedings because the courts’ treatment of her history of abuse affected the evaluation of her request for ineffective assistance of counsel.

MORE | Tennessee governor refuses to grant clemency to death row inmate Christa Pike

The two-judge majority said it needed more time to resolve the central procedural issue and therefore suspended its execution “until further notice” so it could fully analyze the arguments.

The order does not vacate his conviction or death sentence.

The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office told FOX 17 News it’s common in capital punishment cases for last-minute objections to be raised by the defense. Below is the following statement:

“We will continue to argue for a lawfully imposed sentence while the courts consider this technical issue. It is common in capital cases for the defense to raise last-minute objections after decades of litigation in numerous courts. We ask the United States Supreme Court to lift the stay.”

Pike’s execution drew national attention from opposing camps over whether a sexual abuse victim herself should be executed after the state passed a law in 2024 allowing the death penalty for people accused of aggravated rape of a child.

RELATED COVERAGE | Christa Pike could have taken a plea deal to live. Why was he told not to do it?

Tennessee granted a temporary stay of execution for Christa Pike on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, the day of her scheduled execution for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, pictured here. (Photo: SBG)

Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate, in Knoxville, apparently for jealously implicating her boyfriend.

The couple lured Slemmer to a wooded area, cut her with a box cutter, cut a pentagram out of her body, beat her with a large piece of asphalt and cut out a piece of her skull. Pike reportedly bragged about the ordeal.

Pike was sentenced to death while her boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison. Pike’s attorney wants his age at the time to be taken into account, but others want justice to be served.

The documents conclude that there is no new execution date in this order. A judge dissented, arguing that Pike’s case should be dismissed and the execution should proceed.

Ultimately, whether the outcome of the execution rests in the hands of the United States Supreme Court. The Court recently denied Pike’s request to stop the execution. Pike unsuccessfully asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution over challenges to Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol and the process for challenging those allegations. The United States Supreme Court not only rejected the stay request, but also declined to appeal.

On Wednesday, Pike is asking the Sixth Circuit to allow him to reopen his previous federal habeas case, arguing that Tennessee’s recent acknowledgment of his history of sexual abuse undermines the factual basis used in prior proceedings.

FOX 17 News is awaiting the Court’s decision which could come as soon as Wednesday, but the timetable is still unknown.

To view the court documents in full, see below:

This is breaking news. Check back as we learn more.