NASHVILLE, TN — Tennessee is scheduled to carry out the execution of Christa Pike on Wednesday, which would make her the state’s first woman executed in 200 years. Pike was 18 when she killed her classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995 and became one of the youngest women ever sent to death row.
The case has remained notable for the brutality described by prosecutors, the youth of the people involved and the attention drawn by a satanic symbol carved into the victim’s body. Pike, now 50, does not dispute her role in the killing. Her lawyers are trying to stop the execution, while the victim’s mother is urging the state to carry it out.
How the 1995 Knoxville Job Corps killing unfolded
Prosecutors said Pike believed Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded place with help from her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. They said the attack ended with Slemmer being tortured and killed. The two were classmates at Knoxville Job Corps, where the events leading up to the killing began.
Authorities said Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large piece of asphalt. The case gained wide attention not only because of the violence, but also because of the ages of those involved. The crime became part of the era’s “satanic panic” fears after a pentagram was carved into the victim’s body.
Pike’s clemency request centers on abuse, trauma and mental illness
Pike’s attorneys argue that the death sentence is too severe for a crime committed when she was a teenager with untreated mental illness and a history of abuse. Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike was sexually abused starting in early childhood and was raped at ages 11 and 17.
Ferrell also said the defense presentation at the penalty phase did not fully explain that background to jurors or emphasize her age enough. Pike was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In a statement included in her clemency petition, she said she was a mentally ill 18-year-old who did not understand the gravity of what she had done for years.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declined clemency as the Supreme Court weighs a stay
Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday that he would not grant clemency, clearing the way for the scheduled execution unless the courts intervene. Pike’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the sentence, but that request remains pending.
Her legal team says modern science on adolescent brain development makes her punishment an outlier. Ferrell pointed out that Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received life with the possibility of parole because of his age. A third teen involved in the case admitted being an accessory and was placed on probation.
The victim’s mother says she has waited decades for justice
Colleen Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, said from Florida that she wants the execution to move ahead. She said her daughter never got the chance to grow up and that the pain of the killing has never left the family.
Martinez described Colleen as outgoing, interested in computers and involved with Special Olympics volunteering. She said her daughter loved roller skating and had a close bond with her father over computers. Martinez said Colleen called her from Job Corps on the night she was killed, but by the time her mother called back, she had already gone out.
Female executions remain rare in Tennessee and across the country
If Pike is executed as scheduled, it would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman since 1820, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Female executions are rare nationwide as well. Since 1976, the center says 18 women have been executed in the United States, about 1% of all executions.
The most recent U.S. executions of women include Amber McLaughlin in Missouri in 2023 and Lisa Montgomery in 2021 by the federal government. Georgia executed a woman in 2015. The center says death sentences for people who were 18, 19 or 20 at the time of their crimes have become increasingly uncommon, even though 275 people in that age group have been executed in the modern death penalty era.
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