A Tennessee woman was expected to be put to death Wednesday (September 30, 2026) for the murder of a high-school friend in what would be the first execution of a woman in that state in two centuries.
A decision by the U.S. That court was set to review whether allegations that Pike was sexually abused as a child were fully considered in her original prosecution. Supreme Court late Wednesday (September 30, 2026) cleared the way for Christa Pike — the only woman on the state’s death row — to be given a lethal injection after hours of dramatic legal wrangling up and down the judicial system. Pike had been scheduled for execution at 10:00 a.m. (1500 GMT) at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, but it was halted barely an hour before by a lower court.
“The interests of justice and the finality of Pike’s impending execution compel the entry of a short stay of execution in order to properly analyze the parties’ fully briefed arguments,” the lower court order said. But the Supreme Court later said it could go ahead. “The September 30, 2026 order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit…granting a stay of execution is vacated,” the Supreme Court order said.
The U.S.
Supreme Court had rejected Tuesday (September 29, 2026) an application for a stay of execution, which argued that Pike’s history as a victim of sexual assault, post-traumatic stress disorder and a blood condition meant a lethal injection would cause “needless suffering.”
