US Supreme Court allows execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee

The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years. In the case of Christa Pike, the judges approved an urgent application from the authority responsible for prisons. There was no reason for the decision.

The death penalty was to be carried out on Wednesday evening (local time), a spokeswoman for the prison responsible for the execution told the dpa news agency.

Judges criticize decision

Meanwhile, the three liberal justices on the Supreme Court criticized the court's majority decision. In her dissenting opinion, Sonia Sotomayor argued that the decision paves the way for the state to execute Pike before questions about the legality of the previous procedure can be properly examined. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed.

Sotomayor further wrote that she sees no reason to bypass the usual route of this review, "particularly given the serious consequences of an erroneous decision." She described the procedure as “extraordinary”.

Pike is said to have suffered trauma as a child

On Wednesday, the execution by lethal injection was only just stopped. The now 50-year-old was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a then 19-year-old acquaintance. Pike was 18 years old at the time of the crime. In 1995, three teenagers tortured and killed the victim in a remote area near the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Pike, who was sentenced to death, had raised doubts about the legality of the previous proceedings, which now had to be examined, an appeals court decided on Wednesday. The central point here is the judicial assessment of trauma that Pike says he suffered as a child.