Execution of US murderer Christa Pike halted shortly before it was due to happen

It came from her challenge to Tennessee's lethal injection method, which Pike's lawyers said could cause suffering beyond what is needed to carry out the death sentence - something the Constitution does not allow. The lawyers argued that Tennessee's procedures had denied Pike a fair chance to prove this."We will continue to advocate for the lawfully imposed sentence as the courts work through this technical issue," Tennessee's Attorney General said in a statement."It is common in capital cases for the defence to raise last minute objections following decades of litigation in numerous courts. We are asking the Supreme Court of the United States to lift the stay."Family handoutColleen Slemmer was 19 when she was murdered in 1995She was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens.The murder created a media frenzy in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995, when the teen was found with a pentagram - a symbol that is associated with satanic groups - carved into her chest. Pike has denied carving the pentagram herself.She had accused Slemmer of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend. Two other residents at the camp later testified that Pike had bragged about the murder before and after and showed them a piece of Slemmer's skull.A year later, Pike was sentenced to death, while Shipp - who was 17 at the time - was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole.