India, Sept. 30 -- Christa Pike Execution Latest News: The final hours before a scheduled execution in Tennessee took an unexpected turn on Wednesday when a federal appeals court stepped in and temporarily stopped the lethal injection of Christa Pike. Pike, 50, had been due to die at 10 a.m. local time on September 30 for the 1995 killing of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, but the court ordered a short stay to examine new legal arguments surrounding Pike's childhood abuse and sentencing.

The decision came after Pike's lawyers asked the court to consider whether evidence about her traumatic childhood had received proper attention when she was sentenced to death. The case now moves back into the courts, with no new execution date announced....