Date US state's first woman to be executed in 200 years will die
One US state is preparing to carry out its first execution of a woman in over 200 years after the Supreme Court officially scheduled her death nearly 30 years after the crime.
Christa Gail Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, after being convicted in 1996 of the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19.
Slemmer was a classmate who was lured to her death by Pike, her ex-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and their friend, Shadolla Peterson, in Knoxville.
Prosecutors alleged they managed to take her into the quiet area by telling her they would make peace over tensions about her allegedly being interested in Shipp.
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However, when Slemmer got there, she was instead beaten, stabbed, and bludgeoned to death. Court records allege that a pentagram was also carved into her chest.
At the time of the crime, Pike was 18 years old and allegedly kept a piece of Slemmer's skull to show to other students at school.
Just 36 hours later, the group were arrested.
During her confession, Pike claimed that they were only trying to scare Slemmer, and things happened to get out of hand, leading to her murder.
On 22 March 1996, Pike was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
Last month, the Tennessee Supreme Court set her death day as 30 September 2026 and Pike could be up for a very brutal execution method.
While inmates on death row in Tennessee are usually killed via lethal injection, the electric chair is also authorised by the state but can only be chosen in cases where a person committed a capital crime before 1 January 1999.
Regardless of the method, the 49-year-old will become the first woman to be executed in the US state in over 200 years, with the last execution having been in 1820.
According to WBIR Channel 10, it's believed that Pike's execution will take place at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but that hasn’t stopped her lawyers from trying to appeal on the grounds of mental health.
Her attorneys continue to argue that she was young at the time of the crime and had a history of childhood trauma, sexual abuse, and mental illness.
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” Pike's defence team said, as per CBS News. “With time and treatment, she has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime.”
Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder after the murder of Slemmer, which are conditions that her lawyers are trying to say should be reasons used against her execution.
Topics: Crime, US News, True Crime
Britt Jones