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Court halts Tennessee execution of Christa Pike hours before schedule

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a short stay after Pike said her childhood sexual abuse allegations were not adequately considered at sentencing.

Reported · Written up by our desk · North America

A U.S. appeal court halted the planned execution of death row inmate Christa Pike in Tennessee less than two hours before she was scheduled to die, Reuters reports.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a “short stay of execution” to allow time to consider Pike’s claim that her allegations of childhood sexual abuse were not adequately considered during her sentencing, according to the report.

Pike’s clemency petition, which highlighted childhood trauma and sexual abuse, was denied by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, and the court did not provide a specific new time frame, the outlet said.

If carried out, the execution would have made Pike the first woman put to death by Tennessee in more than 200 years, and the only person in the modern era of U.S. capital punishment executed for a crime committed as a teenager, Reuters added.

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