U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Stay of Execution for Woman Who Spent 31 Years on Death Row

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a stay granted hours earlier by another court on the execution of Christa Pike, the only woman sentenced to death in the state of Tennessee, after she was found guilty of murdering a classmate more than three decades ago, when she was 19 years old. "The application to vacate the stay of execution of the death sentence is granted," reads the decision of the highest body of the US judiciary, which overturns the order previously issued by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that had temporarily halted the execution. In 1996, Pike was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to the maximum penalty for the death, one year earlier, of Collen Slemmer, a schoolmate. She and her then romantic partner, Tadaryl Shipp — sentenced to life in prison — tortured, stabbed, and beat the victim to death. After her sentencing, Pike, who never denied her involvement in the crime, became, at 21, the youngest person on death row. BREAKING: The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Tennessee to execute Christa Pike, vacating a stay of execution issued by the Sixth Circuit earlier today. Justice Sotomayor dissented, joined by Kagan and Jackson. pic.twitter.com/GhAy0I2syS — SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) September 30, 2026 In her last unsuccessful bid for clemency, her defense insisted on her mental health problems at the time, arguing that it took her "many years" to understand the gravity of her actions. The prosecution argued that Pike, fearing that Slemmer might try to pursue a relationship with her boyfriend, stabbed her with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Shipp, for his part, admitted that at the time he carved a pentagram — a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism — into her body. The three Democratic justices on the Supreme Court dissent Wednesday's decision by the US Supreme Court did not have the support of Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Jackson, and Elena Kagan, the only three members of the body appointed by Democratic administrations. In a statement, Sotomayor argued that the ruling "paves the way for the State to execute Pike before her still-pending legal challenges to her conviction can be properly considered." "Pike had previously sought state post-conviction relief, alleging in part ineffective assistance of counsel during her trial; she argued that her attorney failed to present adequate mitigating evidence during the sentencing phase that would have highlighted the severe sexual abuse she suffered as a minor," the justice recalled. On this point, she added that "at a hearing on that claim, according to Pike, the state (of Tennessee) repeatedly accused her of being a 'pathological liar' and questioned the experiences of sexual violence she had suffered." With her direct appeal and habeas corpus petition already denied, "the state recently stated during an evidentiary hearing that it 'does not dispute the terrible things' that Pike 'suffered' as a minor," the justice emphasized. She also noted that the condemned woman "has asked to reopen the judgment denying the federal 'habeas corpus' petition," arguing that "the state's statement amounts, in practice, to an acknowledgment that it engaged in unfair procedural maneuvers during the post-conviction proceedings, thereby 'tainting' them." In response to that new petition, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided to stay Pike's execution in order to review whether the allegations of sexual abuse she suffered as a child were thoroughly examined during the trial in which she was sentenced to death, since her lawyers argue that if they had been, the death penalty would not have been sought. However, "the Court's decision to vacate that stay interferes with the Sixth Circuit's ordinary case administration in a capital case and needlessly prevents that court from properly considering Pike's claim," the dissenting justice stated. "Worse still, the Court grants such an extraordinary remedy solely to allow the State to execute Pike before her litigation has run its course in the lower courts," Sotomayor denounced. She then said she saw "no reason to abruptly interrupt the ordinary process of appellate review, especially in light of the grave consequences an erroneous decision would have." Along those lines, she stressed that "in capital cases, 'recognition of our own fallibility and respect for the judgment of an appellate court' demand caution before 'acting irreversibly.'" "Today, the Court, as it has done with too much frequency of late, chooses to overlook that principle precisely when it matters most," she lamented finally.