Death row inmate set to become state's first woman executed in 200 years makes desperate plea
A woman who has been on death row for 30 years has filed for clemency just a few weeks before her scheduled execution.
Christa Pike was sentenced the death in 1996 for the 1995 murder of Collen Slemmer.
Both Pike and Slemmer were just teenagers at the time of the incident. Pike is said to have lured Slemmer to her death and before beating and bludgeoning her.
Reportedly Pike kept a part of her victim's skull.
Advert
In addition to the murder of Slemmer, Pike's also serving time for the attempted murder of a fellow inmate in 2004.
Now, after three decades on death row, Pike is set to be executed by lethal injection on September 30.
In a last ditch attempt to save her life, her attorneys have filed a clemency plea to Gov. Bill Lee.
Part of the 226-page document (which was filed with Lee's office on September 2) reads: "Today, Christa is 50 years old. She doesn’t expect to walk free. Yet after over 30 years in prison, with consistent treatment, medication, and decades of reflection, she accepts responsibility, expresses sincere, deep remorse, and continues to work toward becoming someone who can help others.
"Through this petition, Christa respectfully asks Governor Bill Lee to grant her clemency by commuting her sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
"Christa can still be useful. Her story of growth from a traumatized teenager to a generous, empathetic woman has the power to help others choose a different path. It already has."
The long document details Pike's history of mental illness and the sexual violence she experienced from a toddler.
Should her execution go ahead, Pike will be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee for over 200 years.
There have been repeated concerns about the method of which she'll be killed, that being lethal injection. According to Matt Wells, the Deputy Director of Reprieve US, there's a 'high risk' the 50-year-old inmate will have an 'agonizing death'.
Wells told UNILAD: "Our research showed that more than a quarter of botched lethal injections in the modern era lasted over an hour.
"The fact that Tennessee is doubling down on this broken execution method, so soon after torturing a man in the chamber, is beyond belief. There is a high risk that Christa Pike could suffer a prolonged and agonizing death."
Wells went on to allege that US states will 'go all out to hide information about executions' so that the American public thinks that lethal injections are 'a humane method'.
Which states have the death penalty?
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 27 US states have the death penalty, though it is not actively carried out in all of them.
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California (executive hold on executions since 2019)
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Ohio (executive hold on executions since 2020)
- Oklahoma
- Oregon (executive hold on executions since 2011)
- Pennsylvania (executive hold on executions since 2015)
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Wyoming
Which states have abolished the death penalty?
- Alaska (1957)
- Colorado (2020)
- Connecticut (2012)
- Delaware (2016)
- Hawaii (1957)
- Illinois (2011)
- Iowa (1965)
- Maine (1887)
- Maryland (2013)
- Massachusetts (1984)
- Michigan (1847)
- Minnesota (1911)
- New Hampshire (2019)
- New Jersey (2007)
- New Mexico (2009)
- New York (2007)
- North Dakota (1973)
- Rhode Island (1984)
- Vermont (1972)
- Virginia (2021)
- Washington (2023)
- West Virginia (1965)
- Wisconsin (1853)
Niamh Shackleton