Tennessee is set to execute a woman for the first time in more than 200 years on Wednesday, after the United States Supreme Court rejected a last-minute bid to halt it. Christa Pike, 50, who was convicted of torturing and killing a classmate when she was 18, is due to die by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but according to a report by The New York Post, she has asked to be shot by an all-female firing squad instead. So why does she fear lethal injection, and how does the US put people to death?
Here’s what you need to know: Pike was found guilty of the murder of another young woman she viewed as a romantic rival more than 30 years ago. In January 1995, Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson lured Colleen Slemmer, 19, into a wooded area and tortured and killed her. All four were students at a Job Corps vocational centre in Knoxville.
The case attracted huge public interest, especially after it was revealed that the attackers had carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest, which Shipp later admitted to carving. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull. Pike and Shipp confessed and were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996.
Pike was sentenced to death; Shipp received life with the possibility of parole. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has spoken in support of the execution. Her legal team and trauma experts say it could force her to relive abuse she suffered in childhood.
Her clemency petition documents childhood violence, neglect and sexual abuse, including rapes when she was aged 11 and 17. It also cites her diagnoses of bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sexual violence and trauma experts argue that the procedures around lethal injection would likely trigger severe flashbacks of that abuse.
Her legal team also argues that she has small veins and a blood condition that could make it difficult to place an IV line, a claim the state disputes. In May, Tennessee prison officials abandoned the execution of another prisoner, Tony Carruthers, after failing to find a suitable vein. According to The New York Post, Pike’s lawyers said she also fears a painful death by lethal injection.
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