Christa Pike, convicted of the brutal murder of her teenage classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection this morning at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. The execution is set for 10am local time (3pm UK time). If carried out, Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in about 200 years and the 19th woman put to death in the US since 1976.
Supreme Court declines to halt execution
The US Supreme Court declined to halt the execution on the eve of the scheduled lethal injection. Pike's legal team had filed a petition with the court hoping for a last-minute stay.
Pike was among the youngest women to be sentenced to death when, aged 18, she and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp tortured and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer after meeting her at a job training camp.
Details of the murder
Pike accused Colleen of attempting to steal her boyfriend before luring her to a site near the University of Tennessee, where she was beaten and attacked with a box cutter. Investigators later found Colleen's body with a pentagram carved into her chest and her skull smashed in by a large chunk of asphalt.
Pike, now 50, kept a piece of Colleen's skull and later began showing it to people at her school. She was charged with first-degree murder and sentenced to death on March 30, 1996, about one year after Colleen was murdered. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility.
Execution procedure
At the time of her guilty verdict, Pike was the youngest person on death row, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Lethal injection preparations begin 48 hours before scheduled executions in Tennessee, with all non-legal visits and phone calls ending, according to state guidance.
On the day of the execution, the prison team prepares the lethal injection as well as backup syringes and saline. Witnesses begin arriving around 8:30am and 9:15am. Guards then restrain the inmate in the chamber at 10am and attach IV lines before bringing officials, legal representatives and any clergy members into the room. By 10:10am the warden contacts the commissioner to ensure there have been no last-minute stays or reprieves granted.
After four syringes have been administered, the special operations team signals to the warden, at which a five-minute waiting period begins. Following the five minutes, all witness blinds are closed and the privacy curtains are also closed. The warden then asks a physician to enter the room to examine the inmate to determine if they are dead. If the inmate is still alive, the process is repeated in part.
