US3 min(s) read
The first woman to be killed on death row in over 200 years this week, Christa Pike, has spoken out about feeling an unexpected closeness to Lindsay Clancy, the mother of three who killed her children while suffering from postpartum psychosis.
Christa Pike, 50, was just 18 when she was sentenced to spend the rest of her life on death row after she tortured and killed fellow student Collen Slemmer, 19, with the help of her boyfriend in 1995.
More than 30 years later, her execution date is just 24 hours away, as she is due to receive the lethal injection on Wednesday, September 30.
However, Christa’s lawyers are making one last desperate attempt to spare her life by asking for her sentence to be lowered to life without parole, citing severe mental health issues and a life plagued by trauma.
Pike’s legal team refers to her childhood trauma involving sexual and physical abuse, neglect, and domestic violence, which was never addressed by prosecutors during her initial trial three decades ago.
They claim Christa was sexually abused between the ages of two and five.
It also noted that she was allegedly raped by a 37-year-old neighbor when she was just 11, and at 17, she was dragged into the woods and raped by a stranger while on her way to a shop.
Shortly after being sentenced to death for the torture of, the teenager was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD.
Christa’s longstanding legal team argues that excluding details about her past abuse stopped jurors from fully understanding that they were prosecuting a troubled teenager, not a heinous villain.
Similarly, Lindsay Clancy continued to make headlines earlier this month, when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was guilty of murdering her three young children and ended in a mistrial.
The 36-year-old mother has been accused of killing her three children before jumping out of a window in January 2023.
The Massachusetts mom allegedly strangled her kids, Cora, five; Dawson, three; and eight-month-old Callan, before throwing herself out of a second-story window in an attempt to take her own life.
Lindsay, who survived, now requires a wheelchair and has not denied strangling her children, though she claims she was suffering from undiagnosed postpartum psychosis.
In an interview with The Times, Christa claimed that she feels a 'kinship' with Clancy, who has also claimed that her severe mental health issues led her to commit unthinkable crimes.
Christa also said: “We are both females who got into trouble because of uniquely female issues.
“One thing [that] is different, however, is that times have changed a lot on awareness of women's issues since I was put on trial.”
The soon-to-be-executed inmate added that she is 'pleased' Clancy is 'getting the help she needs,' arguing: “There are so many women who don't get the help they need: me and others.”
