The Tennessee Supreme Court has denied death-row inmate Christa Gail Pike's request for a stay of her Sept 30 execution, rejecting her challenge to the state's lethal-injection protocol. The court ruled her blood disorder did not show the execution would violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The state confirmed the execution is set for 10am CDT on Sept 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. If carried out, it would be Tennessee's first execution of a woman in more than two centuries.

Pike, 50, is Tennessee's only woman on death row. She was sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Knoxville Job Corps student. Pike — then 18 — and two teens lured Slemmer to a secluded area, where Pike bludgeoned her to death with a chunk of asphalt.

Pike's lawyers said they will seek relief from the US Supreme Court and continue asking Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole. She had argued trauma risks given PTSD, bipolar disorder and childhood sexual assaults. Context: the case has drawn national attention as Tennessee prepares for one of its most scrutinized executions in decades.