Supreme Court Clears the Way for Christa Pike’s Historic Execution in Tennessee to Move Forward
The US Supreme Court cleared the way for the first female death row inmate to be executed in Tennessee in over 200 years, overturning a stay on Wednesday that was granted just hours before she was set to die by lethal injection.
The nation’s highest court, in a 6-3 decision, vacated the last-minute stay of execution of Christa Pike, now 50, who murdered her classmate in a jealous rage when she was 18 years old in 1995.
Lefty Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor objected to the decision alongside fellow liberal Justices Elana Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Justice Sotomayor, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009, called the court’s decision stunning — writing that it paves the way for the execution to happen “before her still-pending legal challenges to her conviction can be properly considered.”
“I see no reason to short-circuit the ordinary process of appellate review, particularly in light of the grave consequences of an erroneous decision,” Sotomayor wrote.
Pike is expected to be executed Wednesday night at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, a Tennessee Department of Corrections spokesperson said after the high court made its decision. (Read more from “Supreme Court Clears the Way for Christa Pike’s Historic Execution in Tennessee to Move Forward” HERE)
