US Supreme Court clears way for Christa Gail Pike’s execution in Tennessee to go forward

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Tennessee to execute Christa Gail Pike on Wednesday, overturning a last-minute stay that stalled the state’s first execution of a woman in at least 200 years. Pike, 50, was initially scheduled to die by lethal injection in the morning for a killing she committed at age 18, and witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to issue a stay. That court said a delay was needed to consider whether Pike’s allegations of childhood...