In brief
Christa Pike, 50, awaits death by lethal injection in Tennessee after a 1996 conviction for the murder of a teenage classmate. Her attorneys last-minute petition was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court, meaning Pike will become the first woman in the state to be executed in over two centuries. Governor Bill Lee also refused clemency, stating he would not intervene. The case raises questions about executing offenders who were minors at the time of their crimes and the broader issue of women on death row.
Christa Pike, 50, will be executed by lethal injection in Nashville unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes earlier. The high court declined a final petition filed by her attorneys, meaning the death sentence will take effect on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. EDT.
Pike was convicted in 1996 for the murder of 19‑year‑old Colleen Slemmer, a teenage classmate. At the time of the killing, Pike was 18, and her defense argued that a juvenile brain could not be held fully responsible for a capital crime.
The governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee refused to grant clemency, stating he would not intervene in her scheduled execution.
Pike has been on death row since 1996 and has become the youngest inmate on the state’s death row at the time of her arrest. Her case joins a small number of female executions in the U.S. – only 18 women have been sentenced to death since the 1970s, compared with 1,663 men.
Additional reporting by Sareen Habeshian.
Clarification 29 September: This article originally referred to a pentagram as "a symbol of Satanic ritual". We have updated the wording to clarify that the symbol was an inverted pentagram linked to certain satanic groups.
