SCOTUS Ruling Clears Path for Tennessee Convicted Murderer Christa Pike’s Execution

The lawyers for Tennessee convicted murderer Christa Pike appear to have run out of options thanks to the Supreme Court, which ruled earlier this evening that "The application to vacate stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Kavanaugh and by him referred to the Court is granted."

The ruling from the nation's court came several hours after a decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier in the day effectively halted Pike's scheduled execution. Tennessee's Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti, appealed to the SCOTUS immediately:

The ruling capped a day of legal limbo, which began just hours before Ms. Pike was set to die by lethal injection in Nashville. A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said the pause was necessary to consider a last-minute filing from her legal team, which argued that the defense at her initial trial had failed to consider her history of sexual abuse and neglect as a child.

The SCOTUS ruling was 6-3, with the Usual Suspects dissenting:

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority cleared the way for the execution Wednesday evening but did not explain its decision. The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing that the majority “unnecessarily prevents” the lower court from fully considering Ms. Pike’s argument.

Justice Sotomayor argues that the Supreme Court is allowing Tennessee to execute Christa Pike before the Sixth Circuit can fully consider her pending legal challenge. She says there is “no reason to short-circuit the ordinary process of appellate review.”

— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) September 30, 2026

My RedState colleague Kyle Becker wrote Wednesday morning about this case and how Pike's crime, committed when she was 18 years old, was especially heinous:

Prosecutors said Pike believed [Colleen] Slemmer, a classmate at a Knoxville job-training facility, was trying to steal her boyfriend. On January 12, 1995, Pike lured the 19-year-old into a wooded area, where Slemmer was beaten and stabbed.

Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large piece of asphalt. Pike's boyfriend, who was 17 at the time, later admitted carving a pentagram into Slemmer's body. The gruesome details generated national attention during the "satanic panic" era of the 1980s and 1990s.

Pike has been sitting on Death Row for over 30 years.

The full ruling from the Supreme Court can be read here. It's unclear as of this writing when Pike's execution will be rescheduled.

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