Death row inmate set to become first woman killed by US state in 200 years makes last-ditch request 7 days before execution

A woman who is set to become the first person executed in the state of Tennessee in over 200 years has made a last-ditch request before her execution date next week.

Christa Pike brutally murdered Colleen Slemmer in 1995 in a premeditated attack, which subsequently led to her being sentenced to death.

Pike's last-ditch request before execution date

Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, was convicted in the 1995 death of student Colleen Slemmer, 19. Credit: the Tennessee Department of Correction

Pike, who has repeatedly challenged her sentence, had her lawyers file a 226-page clemency petition just weeks before her scheduled execution on September 30, with there still being time for a prospective reprieve.

Now 50, Pike is reportedly “terrified” of a painful death by lethal injection, due to a rare blood disorder which may prolong the usually instantaneous process.

Should her last-minute appeal fall on deaf ears, Pike has pleaded with authorities to ensure those presiding over her execution are all female.

The reason behind her very particular request is due to post-traumatic stress disorder following the abuse she was subjected to as a child.

Pike’s concerns regarding the lethal injection have been such that she actually took the state to court to try and get the execution procedure changed, asking to be hanged instead of facing the lethal injection, which would likely cause her “prolonged and agonizing” pain.

“(Lethal injection administered by men) will increase the likelihood that an 8th Amendment violation will occur,” Pike’s lawyer Stephen Ferrell claimed when discussing the punishment.

“There is an increased risk of pain and suffering.”

Pike's 1995 murder of Slemmer

Christa Pike is facing execution later this month, despite filing a 226-page clemency petition. Credit: Death Penalty Information Center

In 1995, Pike murdered Slemmer, a fellow student at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville, along with her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, after Pike believed the girl was interested in her partner.

Pike and Shipp had slit the victim’s throat with a box cutter, beaten her, and engraved satanic symbols on her body, with Pike even returning with a piece of Slemmer’s skull after the attack, having allegedly boasted to her friend afterward.

An employee from the University of Tennessee employee found Slemmer’s corpse two days later, having initially mistaken it “for the corpse of an animal.”

As such, Pike was arrested and admitted to her involvement, before pleading guilty and being sentenced to the death penalty a year later.

Featured Image Credit: The Tennessee Department of Correction