Tennessee Execution Of Christa Pike Halted By Court

The scheduled execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee has been halted by a federal appeals court about an hour before she was due to be put to death on Wednesday.
The court ordered a stay of execution to allow judges to review whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered before she was sentenced to death.
Pike, now 50, was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate she killed when she was 18.
Her execution would have been Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in at least 200 years .
The federal appeals court issued the order at about 9 a.m., shortly before the execution was scheduled to take place at the Riverbe...