CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Panthers have placed starting cornerbacks Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson on injured reserve ahead of Sunday night's game against the Detroit Lions.
Horn injured his quadriceps during a 21-18 loss to the Cleveland Browns last weekend while Jackson left with a groin injury. Both players will miss a minimum of four games, although Horn's injury could keep him out significantly longer.
Panthers coach Dave Canales wouldn’t confirm a report on Monday that Horn tore his quadriceps muscle and would miss six to 12 weeks. He told reporters that the team was seeking multiple medical opinions on Horn regarding the timeline of the injury.
Canales is expected to provided an update on the injuries after Wednesday's practice.
The injury was significant enough that Horn, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, took to social media to post, “Injuries have held me back from reaching my full potential for too long, and that (stuff) hurts deep down to my core more than words could ever explain.”
Horn went on to say: “I love this game. I love my brothers. And I’m not done. I’ll be back.”
The injuries are particularly concerning given this week’s opponent. The Lions, led by quarterback Jared Goff, rank eighth in the league in passing and third in scoring through three weeks.
The good news for the Panthers is they have a bye in Week 5, which would allow them some time to regroup in the secondary.
Akayleb Evans and rookie Will Lee III are expected to start at cornerback moving forward, while Chau Smith-Wade would be the nickel back.
Evans had 15 starts for the Minnesota Vikings in 2023 but has only two since. It would be the first NFL start for Lee, the team’s fourth-round draft pick.
In corresponding moves, the Panthers signed veteran wide receiver David Moore and running back Anthony Tyus III from the practice squad to fill out the 53-man roster.
Carolina also signed cornerback Robert Rochell to the practice squad.
Moore has appeared in 22 games with seven starts since joining the Panthers in 2024.
Moore could give the Panthers another option at wide receiver if Jalen Coker is unable to play against the Lions. Coker left last weekend's game with a quadriceps injury.
Tyus spent the first three weeks of the 2026 season on the Panthers’ practice squad and was elevated for the team’s Week 3 game against Cleveland. He returned two kickoffs for 47 yards.
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Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (4) runs with the ball against Carolina Panthers cornerback Mike Jackson (2) during the first half of an NFL football game in Cleveland, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts (8) drops the ball against Carolina Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn (8) during an NFL football game in Atlanta, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's execution of Christa Gail Pike for a murder she committed at age 18 was halted Wednesday shortly before it was set to begin, as a court sought to review whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse were fully considered at her sentencing.
Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of the 1995 stabbing and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals halted Pike's execution on a 2-1 vote about an hour before the scheduled execution time, as witnesses and others gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Tennessee has not executed a woman in at least 200 years.
The case garnered widespread attention at the time of the killing in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer’s body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.
Tennessee’s attorney general immediately appealed the stay to the U.S. Supreme Court. Witnesses and media remained at the prison while the high court considered whether to allow the execution to proceed.
The state's execution order expires at midnight, said Kelley Henry, a Nashville-based attorney experienced with Tennessee death penalty law. If time runs out and the stay is lifted, the Tennessee Supreme Court would need to set a new execution date.
In its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the attorney general's office wrote that halting the execution at the last moment traumatized Slemmer’s family and rewarded “abusive delay tactics” by Pike’s attorneys.
Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider her age at the time, her mental illness and her allegations of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler.
“It is inconceivable that in the 21st century, the criminal justice system is poised to execute a survivor of rape and child sexual abuse whose jury never had the opportunity to consider those facts in weighing the defendant’s moral culpability,” her attorneys wrote in a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As the execution date drew near, Pike's case renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated.
After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her clemency petition, she said she only wanted to fight Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she couldn’t “put the brakes on.”
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a statement.
Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” May Martinez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Saturday.
Martinez said a group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution. She didn't respond to a message Wednesday after the execution was halted.
Martinez said her daughter's age also should matter in deciding Pike's fate.
“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst,” she said, noting that her daughter would have turned 51 earlier in September.
The killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satan, into her body.
Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.
Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Older records can be spotty, though, so it’s difficult to know precise details about the last woman who was put to death there.
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 18 women have been put to death in the U.S., representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center.
Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government put a female inmate to death.
Pike would be the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year after Florida carried out an execution on Tuesday.
Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
May Martinez, left, mother of murder victim Colleen Slemmer, walks out of Riverbend Maximum Security Institution during a stay of the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Leslie Brown, right, stands with others in the area reserved for people in favor to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Kathleen Walter prays in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Abraham Bonowitz speaks during a March 4 Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. ahead of the Sept. 30th scheduled execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Alonzo Hughes participates in a March 4 Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. ahead of the Sept. 30th scheduled execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
In this image from video provided by WBIR-TV, Christa Pike cries after being sentenced to death on March 30, 1996 in Knoxville, Tenn. (WBIR-TV via AP)
This photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)
