Why women on death row face more 'torment' than men during infamous 'death watch'
According to experts, death row inmates are treated worse when they are women, particularly when it comes to their infamous ‘death watch’, which could see female inmates experience more trauma.
Christa Gail Pike is set to become the first woman in the US to be executed in over 200 years as her death date has been confirmed for September 30.
Pike is currently serving time on Death Row at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center (formerly the Tennessee Prison for Women) and has been since she was found guilty of murdering Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
At the time of her incarceration, she was just 21, making her the youngest person on Death Row, per the Tennessee State Department of Correction.
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As one of just 45 women on Death Row in the US, this makes her part of the two per cent population that are not male, per Death Penalty Information Center.
While this might not seem like it would permit any differences in their treatment, according to experts, women have it worse all the way from trial to death.
This includes slut-shaming at trial, having to fight to be awarded basic menstrual products in prison, treatment from male guards, and even being more isolated than their male counterparts on Death Row.
Sandra Lynn Babcock, a law professor at Cornell University, explained per USA Today, that when it comes to the ‘death watch,’ process, things are less than ideal.
This is where an inmate is watched in the days leading up to their execution to ensure they don’t commit suicide.
Babcock revealed that Pike's death watch will be held in a male prison and ‘will be carried out by men and then the execution team is going to be comprised primarily of men, who will strap her down and kill her.’
This is a level of ‘torment’ that men aren’t usually subjected to in these circumstances, she said.
Per the outlet, there have been many instances where women are subjected to things like slut-shaming during trials to prove their guilt over a murder, or to strip search them during their menstruation.
As for other differences in her treatment, Pike spent 27 years in what her attorneys say was essentially solitary confinement.
While male inmates could attend religious services together, work, take classes and eat together, Pike was alone.
In a 2022 lawsuit against the state, her law team said it was punishment 'based on the arbitrary fact that she is the only woman sentenced to death in Tennessee'.
"Ms. Pike has been subjected to solitary confinement in a cell the size of a parking space, where she has had nearly no meaningful human contact. These conditions have had a devastating impact on her mental and physical health," they wrote. “The cumulative effect of this extreme punishment ... has deprived Ms. Pike of basic constitutional guarantees of humane treatment."
In Pike’s case, this kind of treatment has a certain kind of trauma that could see this be a sad end to her life – even for someone who murdered an innocent girl.
Reports indicate that Pike’s life saw her subjected to years of sexual abuse, rapes, neglect, at least one suicide attempt, and more.
Allegedly, she was also raped one year prior to her murdering Slemmer over jealousy that she was trying to steal her boyfriend.
According to a petition to stop Pike’s execution based on her mitigating evidence which wasn’t presented to jurors at the time of her trial, ‘Christa Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row for a crime committed when she was an 18-year-old girl with severe trauma and untreated mental illness.’
The Mercy For Christa page claims: “She is a victim of child sexual abuse, multiple rapes that began when she was a toddler, and parental abandonment and neglect. If her execution proceeds, Christa Pike will be the first woman put to death in the State of Tennessee in more than 200 years.”
Britt Jones