Execution of US woman, first in Tennessee state in 200 years, halted at last minute

The execution of US death row inmate Christa Pike was halted about an hour before she was due to receive a lethal injection on Wednesday after a federal appeals court said it needed more time to review her case.

A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling as Pike's lawyers challenged earlier decisions in her case.

The latest development came after the US Supreme Court rejected a request to stop the execution and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee declined to grant Pike clemency earlier this week.

Pike's lawyers argued that her federal appeals had been affected by an earlier position taken by Tennessee authorities regarding her claims of childhood sexual abuse.

According to her legal team, the state had previously argued in court that Pike had lied about being sexually abused. However, during a recent hearing concerning her execution method, the state said it did not dispute that she had suffered sexual abuse and rape.

Her lawyers asked the appeals court to return the matter to a lower federal court, arguing that the change in the state's position required further review.

Pike, now 50, has been on death row since 1996, when she was convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and another person lured Slemmer into a wooded area near a Job Corps vocational centre in Knoxville in January 1995. The three were accused of beating and torturing Slemmer before killing her.

The killing received widespread attention because of its brutality. Prosecutors said the attackers carved a pentagram into Slemmer's chest and took part of her skull.

Pike and Shipp later confessed and were convicted of first-degree murder. Pike was sentenced to death, while Shipp received life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

The third defendant, Shadolla Peterson, acted as a lookout and later testified for the prosecution. She received probation.

Pike's lawyers had also cited her history of violence, neglect and sexual abuse during childhood in their earlier request for clemency. They said she had been raped at the ages of 11 and 17.

Pike is the only woman currently on Tennessee's death row. She was also convicted in 2001 of attempted first-degree murder over an assault on another inmate.