Additional Coverage:
- Inmate set to be Tennessee’s first female execution in over 200 years saved at last minute (themirror.com)
A last-minute stay of execution has been granted for Christa Pike, who was scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries.
Pike, now 50, was set to be put to death by lethal injection within the hour. She and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were convicted for the brutal 1995 murder of their 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer.
The tragic incident stemmed from Pike’s belief that Slemmer was trying to come between her and Shipp, who was 17 at the time. Pike, Shipp, and their friend Shadolla Peterson, 18, lured Slemmer to an abandoned steam plant under the pretense of making peace.
During the assault, Peterson acted as a lookout while Shipp and Pike viciously attacked Slemmer. Shipp used a box cutter to carve a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest while she was still alive.
Pike ultimately ended Slemmer’s life by smashing her skull with a large piece of asphalt. Shockingly, Pike kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull and showed it to other students.
The three were arrested the following day. Pike quickly confessed, claiming their intention had been only to scare Slemmer. At just 20 years old, Pike was one of the youngest women ever sentenced to death in the United States.
The scheduled execution reignited debate over the death penalty, especially concerning young offenders. While Pike has never denied her role in the killing, her supporters have pointed to her age at the time, documented mental health issues, and a history of sexual abuse-including rape as a toddler-as factors warranting clemency.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell described Pike’s death sentence as unusual, noting that other 18-year-olds in Tennessee who received death sentences have since had them overturned. Initially, Governor Bill Lee denied Pike’s plea for clemency on Monday, only to reverse his decision moments before the execution was to proceed.
The length of the delay remains uncertain. At the time the stay was issued, execution witnesses, including Slemmer’s mother May Martinez, had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
In a letter written prior to the stay, Pike expressed acceptance of her fate, writing, “I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone who has supported me through these hard days. I’ve felt more love in the last two weeks than I have my entire life….
Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace. I am not afraid to die.”
Meanwhile, Slemmer’s mother has been vocal in her desire for the execution to move forward, saying she has waited decades for justice. “Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” Martinez told the Associated Press.
She shared that a group had raised funds to bring her and her husband from Florida to witness the execution. “I will sit there with her picture in my hand,” Martinez said of her daughter, “and as she gets hooked up to a needle to go to sleep, she can look at the picture.”