Christa Pike, the first woman to receive a death sentence in Tennessee in 200 years, expressed that she feels “at peace” as her execution approaches. This comes after the state’s governor decided not to intervene in her final plea for clemency.
In a letter to NBC News, Pike, a convicted murderer, stated, “Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace.” This was before she found out that Tennessee Governor Bill Lee would deny her request for mercy.
Pike, now 50, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, marking a significant event as it is the first execution of a woman in over two centuries in the state.
Back when she was just 18, Pike lured her fellow Job Corps student, Colleen Slemmer, only 19, to a secluded area on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville. In a fit of jealousy, she and her boyfriend brutally tortured Slemmer to death on January 12, 1995.
Pike’s legal team has sought to stop the execution through the Supreme Court, arguing that her prior mental health challenges, particularly with post-traumatic stress disorder, could exacerbate her suffering as she undergoes lethal injection.
The defense has also highlighted the traumatic childhood Pike endured, filled with physical and sexual abuse, as factors that weren’t taken into account during her trial.
Additionally, she has requested that an all-female team administer her execution, as she believes having men present could be re-traumatizing for her during those final moments.
Officials in Tennessee have indicated that they would consider her requests, including assigning female guards to accompany her to the maximum-security facility before her execution.
Pike, who became one of America’s youngest death row inmates in March 1996, later developed diagnoses of bipolar disorder and PTSD.
In her clemency request, a 226-page document filed in September, her attorneys argued that her untreated mental health issues severely impaired her judgment at the time of the crime. In her own words, she reflected, “I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done.”
Pike’s actions that day included using a box cutter to inflict wounds and beating Slemmer with a chunk of asphalt. Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, added to the horror by carving a Satanic symbol into Slemmer’s body.
This case shocked the Knoxville community, given its extreme violence and the occult symbolism, which played into the broader cultural fears of the so-called “satanic panic” during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The victim’s mother, May Martinez, has expressed her desire for Pike’s execution to proceed. She recounted the pain of reliving her daughter’s death and stated, “Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen.” She poignantly noted the recent anniversary of what would have been Colleen’s 51st birthday, a reminder of her loss.
Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the murder, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole but was denied that option last year. A third accomplice admitted to being an accessory and was put on probation.
