Death penalty in the USA: execution in Tennessee is imminent

dpa/ap | On Wednesday morning (local time), Christa Pike (50), who was sentenced to death in the USA, was to be executed in Nashville, Tennessee. But an hour before the planned execution, a court ordered that it not be carried out. A federal appeals court announced on Wednesday that it must first be examined whether the allegations that Pike himself was a victim of sexual abuse and rape as a child were sufficiently taken into account in the verdict. It was initially unclear whether the Attorney General's Office would appeal and how long the execution could be delayed.

The 50-year-old was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a then 19-year-old acquaintance. She was 18 years old at the time of the crime. It would be the first execution of a woman in the US state in more than 200 years.

Several campaigns had campaigned to stop the enforcement. The human rights organization Amnesty International emphasized that the convict suffered rape, sexual and physical violence, abuse and neglect in her childhood. UN experts are also calling for a stop to the execution.

Pike's lawyers submitted a 226-page clemency petition to the state government in early September. However, Republican Governor Bill Lee initially rejected this on Monday. After careful consideration, he initially confirmed the judgment of the state of Tennessee and did not intend to intervene, media quoted Lee as saying.

The mother of the murdered 19-year-old told the New York Times that she was outraged by the attention Pike was now receiving before his execution. “No one could ever, ever convince me that she has changed,” the newspaper quoted the woman as saying. Even in solitary confinement, Pike had access to comfort and support that her daughter was denied.

“I don't think someone should kill me to teach me that it's wrong to kill someone,” the New York Times quoted the convicted Pike as saying. “I go through this execution in my heart every day,” she said in an audio recording her lawyers provided to the newspaper.

In 1995, three teenagers tortured and killed the victim in a remote area near the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. According to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, Pike is the only one of the three to be sentenced to death. Her boyfriend at the time was 17 years old at the time of the crime and received a life sentence. Another 18-year-old was sentenced to probation.