NASHVILLE — Christa Pike, who was just 18 years old when she became one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death row, is scheduled to be executed this Wednesday. The lethal injection would mark the first time Tennessee has put a woman to death in 200 years.
Now 50, Pike was convicted for her role in the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors successfully argued that a jealous Pike lured Slemmer to a remote location, where she and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, tortured and killed her. The case gained national notoriety not only due to the youth of the participants but also because of the brutality of the assault, which included the carving of a pentagram into the victim’s body.
While Pike does not contest her guilt, her legal team and advocates have launched a final, urgent appeal to stop the execution. They argue that the death sentence is fundamentally unjust, citing Pike’s history of severe sexual abuse and neglect as a child, as well as her untreated mental health struggles, including bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid,” Pike wrote in a statement for her clemency petition. “It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done… It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime.”
Governor Bill Lee rejected a request for clemency on Monday, leaving Pike’s attorneys to seek a last-minute stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. Her defense team emphasizes that in the decades since her conviction, the legal system has developed a better understanding of adolescent brain development and the long-term impacts of childhood trauma. They also point to the disparity in sentencing: Pike’s boyfriend, who was 17 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, while a third involved teen received probation.
Conversely, the victim’s family remains firm in their desire for justice. May Martinez, Slemmer’s mother, stated that she has waited nearly 30 years to see the sentence carried out, noting that her daughter never had the chance to reach adulthood. “Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” Martinez said.
If the execution proceeds, it will be a historic and rare event. Nationally, women account for only about 1% of all executions since 1976. Robin M. Maher of the Death Penalty Information Center noted that, given what is now known about Pike’s traumatic past, a jury today would be unlikely to return a death sentence.
For now, the state of Tennessee prepares to carry out a sentence that has remained dormant for two centuries, closing a painful chapter for both the family of the victim and the state’s justice system.
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