Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday in what would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in 200 years. Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps.
Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer. The case received widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved, and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body. Pike does not deny her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argue a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teen with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect.
Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out. Tennessee governor Bill Lee announced Monday that he would not grant clemency. Pike’s attorneys have asked the supreme court to stay the execution.
Pike’s attorneys said she experienced an exceptionally traumatic and abusive childhood. Assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike was sexually abused starting from when she was a toddler and that she was raped at 11 and 17. He said Pike’s lawyers at the penalty phase of her trial did not present the jury with what he said was critical information about her past or argue that her age should be a consideration.
Pike was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pike told police she initially only wanted to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her in a frenzied attack. In her clemency petition, Pike’s attorneys said her untreated mental illness and background made her unable to “put the brakes on”.
It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend.
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