Tennessee is planning to execute a female inmate accused of murder on Wednesday, marking the first time in over 200 years that a woman has received the death penalty in the state.
Christa Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. She has been imprisoned for roughly 30 years in connection with the 1995 murder of her classmate. Pike and her boyfriend at the time were both involved in the crime.
The case drew widespread attention because of the murder’s severe brutality. Prosecutors presented evidence that Pike, who was 18 at the time, and 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp tortured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, slashed her with a box cutter and meat cleaver, carved a satanic pentagram symbol into her chest, smashed her head with a rock, and took a fragment of her skull as a souvenir.
Pike committed the murder over an intense romantic jealousy of Slemmer, who allegedly attempted to steal her boyfriend’s attention.
The planned execution is moving forward after Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) rejected Pike’s clemency request.
“After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” Lee said on Monday.
The defendant’s attorneys said they were “deeply saddened and heartbroken” by the governor’s decision.
“Throughout her childhood, Christa was failed by people and institutions that should have shown her care and meaningful intervention. Instead, her childhood was marked by repeated, documented rape and sexual abuse, neglect, and violence,” they said. “The 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists. 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.”
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Pike’s lawyers are pleading with the Supreme Court to grant their emergency application for a stay of the execution, which is secheduled for Wednesday.
The last woman executed in Tennessee was Eve Martin, who was hanged in 1820 after she was charged with being an accessory to murder.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
