Tennessee set to execute woman for first time in more than 200 years

Tennessee is scheduled to execute death-row inmate Christa Gail Pike on Wednesday, marking the first execution of a woman by the US state in more than two centuries.

Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a vocational training centre in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time of the killing.

According to court evidence, Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and another young woman lured Slemmer into a wooded area. Slemmer was then tortured and killed. The case attracted widespread attention because of the particularly violent nature of the crime.

Pike and Shipp later confessed to the murder and were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996. Pike received a death sentence, while Shipp was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. The third participant, Shadolla Peterson, served as a lookout and later testified for prosecutors. She received probation.

Pike is currently the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. She was also convicted in 2001 of attempted first-degree murder for attacking another inmate.

Her lawyers had asked Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to replace her death sentence with life imprisonment without parole. They argued that Pike experienced severe abuse and neglect during childhood, including sexual violence, and suffered from mental health conditions including bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Her legal team also presented evidence that her mother had consumed large amounts of alcohol during pregnancy and argued that this may have affected Pike’s brain development and impulse control when she was young.

The governor rejected the clemency request. The US Supreme Court also declined an emergency request to stop the execution, clearing the way for the lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Pike’s lawyers maintain that she has changed significantly since the crime, saying she is now remorseful, receives treatment and supports other incarcerated women.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has supported Pike’s execution.

Executions of women remain uncommon in the United States. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, only 18 women have been executed among 1,683 people put to death since the US resumed capital punishment in 1976.

Pike’s case has also drawn international attention. UN human rights experts have called for her death sentence to be commuted, while trauma specialists have raised concerns about the potential psychological impact of lethal injection because of her history of sexual abuse.

Tennessee has carried out 17 executions before Pike’s scheduled execution.