Death row killer Christa Pike execution halted as last minute concerns raised

The execution of convicted killer Christa Pike has been stayed by the US Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit following further review, according to new filings obtained by WVLT.

Pike, 50, was due to be executed by lethal injection at Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution at 10am local time on Wednesday 30 September after more than three decades on death row.

Her death would have made her the first woman to be executed by the state of Tennessee in over 200 years.

READ MORE: Full timeline of Christa Pike case and clemency process

The Court of Appeal's last-minute decision was discussed in a statement shared by Pike's attorney via the PR firm Hall Strategies.

"The court has stayed this recognizing the serious concerns about Christa’s scheduled execution," it read, as per WKRN.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 (Tennessee Department of Corrections)

A spokesperson for the Office of Tennessee Attorney General said: "We will continue to advocate for the lawfully-imposed sentence as the courts work through this technical issue.It is common in capital cases for the defence to raise last minute objections following decades of litigation in numerous courts.

"We are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to lift the stay."

Pike's execution would have come after years of appeals and legal challenges.

Her team of lawyers previously filed a clemency petition, arguing that Pike's history of childhood abuse, trauma and mental illness was not properly presented when she was sentenced to death for attacking and killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Job Corps training centre in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1995.

Her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, who'd assisted in murdering Slemmer, was given life with the possibility of parole, having been 17.

Slemmer had been a student at the Job Corps, alongside Pike (First Coast News/ABC)

A third person, the couple's friend, Shadolla Peterson, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact, testified against Pike and Shipp, and received six years' probation.

Pike had accused Slemmer of attempting to steal Shipp from her, after which the couple - joined by Peterson - lured to an isolated area near the University of Tennessee's Agricultural campus before attacking and killing her.

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to death in 1996.

On Monday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee rejected Pike's clemency petition, however, saying he would not intervene in the sentence.

"After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence," Lee ruled.

The Tennessee Supreme Court previously rejected her request for a stay earlier this month.