Tennessee’s Lone Woman on Death Row Fights to Get Off

Tennessee officials are preparing to carry out the execution of a woman for the first time in more than 200 years. Christa Gail Pike, now 50, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Sept. 30 for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Pike, who was 18 at the time of the crime, has argued in recent years that she has significantly changed during her decades in prison.

Prosecutors said the murder occurred after Pike became convinced Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend. According to court testimony, Pike and two others persuaded Slemmer to go into a wooded area where she was subjected to a prolonged assault that lasted about an hour. During the attack, authorities said Pike carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest and struck her repeatedly with a piece of asphalt. Investigators later said Pike bragged about the killing and even displayed a fragment of the victim’s skull.

A police officer later testified that Pike appeared to be laughing when she returned to the crime scene with officers. She was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death. Pike’s boyfriend at the time, who was 17, was also convicted of first-degree murder and received a life sentence. A third person involved in the incident testified for the prosecution and was given probation, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

While in prison, Pike was convicted in 2004 for attempting to murder another inmate. In a letter written in 2023, she said that years of incarceration had dramatically changed her outlook and behavior.

Earlier this year, Pike’s legal team filed a lawsuit against Tennessee officials challenging the state’s plan to execute her using pentobarbital. Her attorneys argue that because she suffers from thrombocytosis, a blood disorder that affects platelet levels, the drug could cause her severe pain and would violate the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

They also cited past accounts of problematic executions involving pentobarbital, including a 1988 execution in Tennessee in which inmate Byron Black reportedly cried out in pain before dying. Pike’s lawyers further contend that she cannot choose electrocution, the only other execution method available under Tennessee law, because her Buddhist beliefs prevent her from participating in an act that would cause her own death.

State officials dispute those claims. They argue that the Constitution does not guarantee an execution without pain and say Pike’s arguments about additional risk from her medical condition are speculative. Courts have repeatedly upheld lethal injection and the use of pentobarbital, the state maintains.

Pike’s attorneys also say that if she were tried today, factors such as her young age at the time of the crime, mental health issues, and a history of childhood sexual abuse might influence sentencing. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has pushed back on that argument, pointing to the extreme violence of the crime and allegations that Pike kept a piece of the victim’s skull as a trophy.

Colleen Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has long supported the death sentence. In a 2021 television interview, she said she hopes the execution is carried out while she is still alive.

If the execution takes place as scheduled, Pike would become only the 19th woman executed in the United States since 1976, out of more than 1,600 executions during that time.

Original Source