Tennessee to Execute Woman on Death Row for 1995 Murder

Christa Pike, 50, is set to be executed by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday. Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer, a crime she committed at age 18. The execution will be the first of a woman in Tennessee since the early 19th century and the only modern-era death penalty case in the state involving a teenager.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency request for a stay of execution on Tuesday, and Governor Bill Lee rejected Pike’s clemency petition, which cited a history of childhood trauma, sexual abuse, and diagnoses of bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pike’s attorneys argued that these factors should merit a commutation to life imprisonment without parole.

Pike and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp confessed to the killing and were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996. Shipp received a life sentence with parole eligibility, while a third participant, Shadolla Peterson, was given probation after testifying for the prosecution.

The case has drawn attention from international human-rights observers and experts on sexual violence, who have called for clemency, citing concerns about the psychological impact of lethal injection on individuals with a history of severe trauma.

"Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions, receives proper treatment for her mental illness, and provides for and guides fellow incarcerated women," her lawyers wrote in the clemency petition.

"May Martinez, the victim’s mother, has spoken out in support of the execution," officials noted.

Women represent a small fraction of U.S. executions; since 1976, they have accounted for 18 of the 1,683 people put to death nationwide. Prior to this scheduled execution, Tennessee had carried out 17 executions.