Key facts
- Christa Pike, 50, was granted a stay of execution on Wednesday.
- Pike was scheduled to receive a lethal injection.
- She was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer.
- Pike would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.
- The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the stay.
- The U.S. Supreme Court denied Pike's appeal on Tuesday.
Tennessee inmate Christa Pike has been granted a stay of execution shortly before she was scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Wednesday. Pike, 50, has been awaiting execution since she was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a teenage classmate, Colleen Slemmer.