U.S. Court suspends execution of inmate one hour before it happens

A the execution of a woman sentenced to death in the U.S. state of Tennessee was suspended about an hour before it happened, this Wednesday, after a federal court of appeal ruled that it intends to examine whether the inmate's allegations of child sexual abuse were duly taken into account in the sentence.

Currently at the age of 50, Christa Gail Pike was sentenced to death for attracting 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to an isolated location near the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.

At the age of 18, Pike tortured Slemmer to death with the help of her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp. The man was sentenced to life imprisonment for being a minor and remains entitled to parole, although he witnessed having recorded a pentagram in Slemmer's chest. Already 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson was a watchman during the crime and was paroled for her cooperation.

In this last-minute decision, the court argued that it was necessary to examine the evidence submitted by the Pike team and that the possibility of reopening a court case centered on the allegations that the inmate had been a victim of sexual abuse since childhood, which was recognised by the State at a special hearing in August.

The inmate, who was motivated by the belief that the victim wanted to steal her boyfriend, did not dispute her role in the murder, but her defense attorneys believe that if the details of her childhood, marked by years of sexual abuse and neglect, had been presented in court, the death sentence would not be guaranteed. The case also gained great repercussion after the authorities claimed that it had ties to the occult, at a time marked by the phenomenon known as “Satanic panic.”.

“ The interests of justice and the definitive nature of Pike’s imminent execution require the granting of a brief suspension of execution in order to properly examine the arguments of the parties, which have already been exhaustively presented, and to resolve the issues on the basis of merit,” said the court, quoted by NBC News.

For now, it is unknown how long execution can be suspended.

It should be noted that both Governor Bill Lee and the Supreme Court denied preventing Pike's execution.

In a letter sent to that channel, on Monday, Pike assured that she was “not afraid to die”, but that she was “nervous with the process”. “Whether pardon is granted to me or not, I am at peace”, he wrote.

Pike could be the first woman in over 200 years to be executed in Tennessee, according to historical records.

Since 1976, 18 women have been executed in the United States, accounting for about 1% of all executions in the country during that period.