AP
Tennessee Execution
May Martinez, left, mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, walks out of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution during a stay of the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn.
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Media witnesses say Tennessee officials were unable to carry out the execution of Christa Gail Pike for a 1995 murder on Wednesday. That came after the lethal injection was halted for hours as courts considered a last-minute appeal. Pike had been scheduled for execution after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an appeals court ruling that stopped the lethal injection just an hour before it was to start. It would have been the first time in at least 200 years that Tennessee put a woman to death.
