Tennessee Set to Execute Christa Pike, First Woman in 200 Years

Tennessee plans to execute Christa Pike, 50, by lethal injection on Wednesday, a move that would mark the state's first execution of a woman in more than 200 years, according to NBC News, citing historical records. Pike has spent more than three decades on death row for a 1995 killing she committed at age 18.

What happened to Colleen Slemmer in 1995?

Knoxville police say Pike and two teenage accomplices tortured, slashed and fatally beat 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a classmate in their Job Corps training program, at an abandoned steam plant near the University of Tennessee, NBC News reported. Investigators said the killing took on an occult dimension after a pentagram was found carved into Slemmer's chest, and Pike allegedly told another student she had kept a fragment of the victim's skull as a "souvenir," per the outlet. Pike does not dispute her role in the killing, according to the report.

Why is this execution considered historically rare?

No woman has been executed by the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years, NBC News reported, citing historical records. Pike's case is also notable for its age: she has been on death row for over 30 years, having been sentenced at 18 for a crime prosecutors say involved two accomplices.

The numbers

• 50: Pike's current age
• 18: her age at the time of the 1995 killing
• 30+: years she has spent on death row
• 200+: years since Tennessee last executed a woman, per historical records cited by NBC News

What did Christa Pike say before her execution?

In a letter to NBC News shared by her spiritual adviser, Pike wrote that she is prepared to die but apprehensive about the mechanics of the process. "Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace," she wrote. "I am not afraid to die," she added. "I'm only nervous about the process." The letter was written before Monday, when Gov. Bill Lee declined to intervene in her case, according to the report.

What legal appeals remain before Wednesday?

Pike's lawyers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution, arguing that evidence of years of sexual and physical abuse and neglect in her upbringing was never presented to the jury that sentenced her to death, NBC News reported. Her attorneys contend that if such evidence were introduced at a trial today, a death sentence would not be guaranteed, according to the outlet. With Gov. Lee's clemency decision now final, the Supreme Court petition represents the remaining avenue to delay the execution.

What comes next

Barring a stay from the Supreme Court, Tennessee is set to carry out the execution by lethal injection on Wednesday. The case has drawn attention both for its rarity — the first execution of a woman in the state in two centuries — and for the unresolved question of how mitigating evidence about Pike's background might have shaped the original 1996 sentencing, when a jury convicted her following testimony including forensic analysis of Slemmer's skull wounds, NBC News reported.

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