May Martinez

Christa Gail Pike is the sole woman on Tennessee's death row and was scheduled to be the first woman executed in the state in over two centuries. Her execution was temporarily halted by the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals just hours before she was to receive a lethal injection. The court granted a "short stay of execution" to consider Pike's case further. Pike has also made an unusual request regarding her method of execution, seeking a firing squad instead of lethal injection. This development places Pike's impending execution under renewed scrutiny as the appeals court reviews the legal proceedings.