US to execute woman for 1995 murder after S’Court rejects appeal

The United States Supreme Court has dismissed a last-minute appeal by Christa Pike, a 50-year-old woman on death row in Tennessee, to prevent her execution. The execution, scheduled for Wednesday at 11:00 EDT at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, will be the first instance of a woman being executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a crime she committed alongside her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp.

Pike's lawyers had requested a last-minute reprieve from the Supreme Court after Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied her clemency on Monday. Lee stated that he would not intervene in the execution after reviewing Pike’s request to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment. At the time of the murder, Pike was 18 years old. The murder drew significant attention in Knoxville in 1995 due to the pentagram symbol carved into Slemmer's chest.

Pike's defense argued that her age at the time of the crime should have been considered in determining her sentence, as scientific evidence and legal systems acknowledge that an 18-year-old brain is not fully developed. They also highlighted Pike's history of childhood sexual abuse, abandonment, and neglect, which they believe was not adequately presented to the jury at her trial. Pike, now 50 and remorseful, has since worked to support fellow incarcerated women and receive proper treatment for her mental illness.