Death Row Inmate Requests All-Female Execution Team

The first woman in Tennessee to be sentenced to death in two centuries is requesting that the lethal injection team consists solely of women. She believes that having men present during her execution could be traumatizing for her.

Christa Pike, now 50, has post-traumatic stress disorder due to the abuse she endured from males in her childhood, as indicated by her attorneys. They argue that this background plays a significant role in her request, which was covered by the New York Post.

“Christa was broken, not evil,” her legal team noted in their petition.

Pike was just 18 when convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The incident took place while they were both attending Job Corps in Knoxville in 1995. Pike was found guilty of luring Slemmer to a secluded location, where she and her boyfriend tortured her to death, according to various reports and court records.

At that time, Pike claimed Slemmer had been attempting to see her boyfriend and was spreading rumors about her.

Instead of a trip to a Blockbuster video store, Pike and her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, attacked Slemmer, cutting her throat and marking her body with Satanic symbols, as described in the trial proceedings. Reportedly, Pike even celebrated the murder afterward.

Shipp received a life sentence for his role in the crime, as he was only 17 when it occurred.

Pike is scheduled for execution on September 30. She seeks an all-female execution team, citing the sexual abuse she faced from as young as two years old, which continued throughout her life.

If this request cannot be fulfilled, Pike has indicated that she would prefer to be hanged instead, according to the New York Post.

May Martinez, the mother of the victim, dismissed Pike’s request as absurd. She expressed that Pike should not receive any special privilege, stating, “It’s all bullcrap,” and emphasized that Pike did not consider how Slemmer felt.

While her legal team makes efforts to have her execution method reconsidered, they are also appealing to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee for clemency, hoping to have Pike’s sentence changed to life without parole.

It’s worth noting that no evidence of Pike’s past abuse was presented during her trial, as reported by the Mail.

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to death on March 30, 1996, making her one of the youngest women on death row in the United States.