Tennessee’s only woman on death row is asking Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence so she can spend the rest of her life in prison.
Christa Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville.
The Rev. Stacy Rector, executive director of Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said Pike is one of eight individuals who have been sentenced to death at the age of 18 in Tennessee. All the others are male and have had their sentences reduced for various reasons. Rector noted she and other advocates have raised issues with Pike’s trial representation, history of trauma and a childhood of mental and sexual abuse…