Tennessee State in the United States is set to execute 50-year-old Christa Pike on Wednesday, in what would be the state’s first execution of a woman in 200 years.
Pike was 18 when she was convicted alongside her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, over the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps.
Prosecutors said Pike believed Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area, where she and Shipp tortured and killed her.
The case attracted widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of those involved and the carving of a pentagram into the victim’s body.
Pike has not denied her involvement in the killing. However, her lawyers and supporters have argued that the death sentence is inappropriate because she was 18 at the time of the crime and had suffered untreated mental illness, sexual abuse and neglect during her childhood.
Her lawyers said Pike was sexually abused from toddlerhood and raped at ages 11 and 17.
She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Pike told police that she initially intended to fight Slemmer but the confrontation escalated into a frenzied attack that ended in her death.
In a statement contained in her clemency petition, Pike said, “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.”
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s lawyers during the penalty phase of her trial failed to present the jury with important details about her traumatic childhood or argue sufficiently that her age should be considered.
Ferrell also cited increased understanding of adolescent brain development, noting that Pike’s boyfriend, who was 17 at the time of the killing, was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. Shipp was denied parole last year.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, supports the execution and said she has waited for decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
Martinez described her daughter as an easygoing young woman who volunteered with the Special Olympics, loved roller skating and hoped to pursue a career in computers.
“She was easygoing. She was a computer geek to begin with.
She and my husband would build and tear apart the computers constantly,” Martinez said. “She trusted everybody, and that was her downfall.”
Martinez said Slemmer called her from Job Corps on the night she was killed, but the call was disrupted by poor reception. When she called back, her daughter had already gone out.
“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst. Colleen’s birthday was last week. She would have been 51,” Martinez said.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced on Monday that he would not grant Pike clemency. Her lawyers have asked the US Supreme Court to stay the execution.
If the execution proceeds, it would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman since 1820, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Executions of women remain uncommon in the United States.
Since 1976, 18 women have been executed nationwide, accounting for about one per cent of all executions, according to the centre.
Small style note: In standard news writing, “Tennessee State” can sound like the name of a specific institution.
“Tennessee, a US state,” is more natural and precise.
