Christa Pike, the teenage killer who became one of the youngest women sentenced to death in the United States, has been cleared for execution after the US Supreme Court overturned a last-minute stay.
Pike, now 50, was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Wednesday for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was killed during a jealous attack.
Earlier that morning, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had halted the execution “until further order of this court.”
The temporary stay followed a judge’s decision to consider whether prosecutors had properly taken into account the childhood sexual abuse Pike endured when she was sentenced.
“The court has stayed this, recognizing the serious concerns about Christa’s scheduled execution,” Stephen Ferrell, of the Federal Defenders Services of Eastern Tennessee, said after the ruling.
Following the dramatic development, the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office asked the US Supreme Court to lift the stay, describing it as a “technical issue,” The Tennessean reported.
The Supreme Court overturned the stay shortly before 6 p.m.
The justices gave no explanation in their brief, two-sentence order siding with state prosecutors. However, the court’s three liberal members—Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson—dissented.
Pike is now set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
Christa Pike, now 50, was 18 when she killed a classmate during a jealous attack, making her one of the youngest women sent to death row.
Pike was convicted in March 1996, at age 18, of brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer to death.
Pike was convicted in March 1996, when she was 18, for the brutal stabbing and beating death of Colleen Slemmer, a student at Knoxville’s Job Corps.
She first sought to avoid lethal injection on the grounds of her Buddhist beliefs. Earlier this month, she requested an all-female firing squad instead, with her attorneys pointing to the abuse she suffered during childhood.
Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and accomplice Shadolla Peterson helped lure Slemmer into a wooded area, where the couple tortured her.
The pair carved a pentagram into the teenager’s chest. Police evidence showed that Peterson testified to seeing Pike carve another mark into Slemmer’s head.
Investigators said Pike also removed a piece of Slemmer’s skull and kept it as a souvenir.
Slemmer tried to escape, but the couple caught her and resumed the attack. Pike later estimated that the torture lasted between 30 minutes and an hour.
Pike and Shipp were convicted of first-degree murder. Pike received a death sentence, while Shipp was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Peterson, who was 18 at the time, acted as a lookout during the attack and received probation in exchange for cooperating with authorities.
Pike is escorted from Knox County Criminal Court on March 30, 1996, after receiving a death sentence for Colleen Slemmer’s murder.
Pike was assisted by her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and their classmate Shadolla Peterson (right)
Just hours before her planned execution, Pike refused her last meal, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
Inmates are typically given $20 to spend on their last meal, according to The Tennessean. The state still planned to provide Pike with a meal.
Her refusal came after Governor Bill Lee denied her clemency request and the US Supreme Court declined to stop the execution.
Pike’s lawyers said they were ‘deeply saddened and heartbroken’ by the governor’s decision.
‘Moving ahead with her execution puts the State of Tennessee on singular footing,’ they said in a statement to Fox 17.
‘Christa will be the first person Tennessee executes in the modern death penalty era who was a teenager at the time of the offense, and the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.’
Pike will now be the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years. She is pictured attending a virtual court hearing in August
Kathleen Walter prayed in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution ahead of Pike’s scheduled execution
Demonstrators are pictured outside the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution ahead of Pike’s scheduled execution Wednesday morning
Pike had asked for an all-female firing squad to kill her instead of lethal injection after previously asking to be hanged, the New York Post reported.
Having Pike be restrained and handled by men could retraumatize her because of past sexual abuse, her lawyers had claimed, noting that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
‘[Lethal injection administered by men] will increase the likelihood that an Eighth Amendment violation will occur,’ Ferrell said.
‘There is an increased risk of pain and suffering.’
According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Pike was a victim of child sexual abuse, multiple rapes and attempted suicide at age 12.
When she was 17, she was allegedly grabbed by a stranger by the side of the road and raped. Police never arrested a suspect.
She allegedly killed Colleen Slemmer almost one year to the day after the rape.
Slemmer’s heartbroken mother, May Martinez, previously told the Daily Mail she wanted to watch her daughter’s murderer die while sitting in the front-row seat at her now halted execution
Pike had asked for an all-female firing squad to kill her instead of lethal injection after previously asking to be hanged. She is pictured in court in 2007
Slemmer’s heartbroken mother, May Martinez, previously told the Daily Mail she wanted to watch her daughter’s murderer die while sitting in the front-row seat at her now halted execution.
She and other execution witnesses had gathered at the jail when the order to halt Pike’s death was issued.
A large media presence, including international reporters, also convened at the jail for the planned execution, according to The Tennessean.
Martinez almost didn’t make it to Pike’s near-execution because of travel expenses, but a GoFundMe page helped her afford to do so.
‘They truly cannot believe how many people have stepped up, donated, shared, prayed, and simply shown that they care. They are beyond grateful for every single one of you,’ the fundraiser wrote on Sunday.
‘You helped make sure they could be there for Colleen. And that means more than words can say.’