Christa Pike, now 50, is set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. She has said she does not want her family present for her execution.
Pike was 18 when she beat and tortured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to death alongside her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp. The murder occurred at a training camp for troubled teenagers, where residents said Pike bragged about the killing. She was sentenced to death, while Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
Execution details and requests
Pike has requested that her execution, to be carried out by lethal injection, be performed by an all-female team. Tennessee authorities have said they aim to have Pike transferred to the execution prison by female guards, but cannot guarantee it, the BBC reported.
Colleen's mother, May Martinez, said she wants the execution to happen swiftly so her daughter can 'finally can be resting' and expressed a wish that Pike suffer before death. 'She did the crime. I think she should pay for it', she told a Knoxville radio station.
Legal challenges and background
Pike's legal representatives continue to fight her case, arguing she would not have received a death sentence had she been convicted of the same crime as a teenager today. They also cite her childhood neglect and sexual abuse, details they believe jurors were not able to consider.
A report by forensic psychologist Dr Diana McCoy found that Pike was abused by her mother's partners and husbands and was raped at least twice, at age 11 and again at 17. Dr Bethany Brand, who studied Pike's case in 2023, said the case was rare because of the large number of people who abused her when they had a responsibility to protect her. Brand said Pike's traumatic childhood helped explain why she felt threatened by Colleen and was unable to control her emotions when she killed the young woman.
Broader context
Ashlee Sellar, who met Pike in prison while serving 25 years for involvement in a robbery murder, said the case underlined how many people are not getting the help they need. Sellar suggested Pike was fighting 'much more for her life to matter than she is to actually live'.
A total of 27 out of 50 US states officially sanction the death penalty, although many no longer use it in practice. Texas is the most prolific state for capital punishment, with more than 600 executions since 1982. Tennessee has carried out 14 executions since 2000, with 40 people currently on the state's death row.
