Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has denied a clemency petition from Christa Pike, a death row inmate scheduled for lethal injection on Wednesday. If carried out, the execution will mark a historic milestone, as Pike would become the first woman put to death by the state in more than 200 years.
In a statement regarding the decision, Governor Lee emphasized that he had engaged in deliberate consideration and a thorough review of the case before choosing not to intervene. “I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” Lee said.
Pike, now 50, was convicted for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old fellow resident at a job training camp for troubled adolescents. Prosecutors established that Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, subjected Slemmer to torture before killing her. The crime garnered national attention after reports emerged that a pentagram had been carved into the victim’s chest, fueling speculation about Satanic ritual involvement.
While Pike received a death sentence, Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the offense, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. At the time of her incarceration, Pike was noted by the Tennessee Department of Corrections as the youngest person on the state’s death row.
Pike’s legal team had previously requested that her sentence be commuted to life imprisonment. In response to the governor’s rejection, attorneys Stephen Ferrell, Kelly Gleason, and Randy Spivey criticized the decision, arguing that it disregards modern scientific understanding of adolescent brain development. They stated that executing someone who was a teenager when the crime occurred places Tennessee in a unique and troubling position.
“With this decision, the State of Tennessee is ignoring what both science and our legal system have decided: an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, and 18 is too young to face execution,” the attorneys said in a Monday statement. They also highlighted that Pike’s defense team has since uncovered significant details regarding her history of childhood sexual abuse, abandonment, and neglect—evidence they argue was not presented to the original jury.
The legal team contends that the young woman who committed the murder no longer exists. Instead, they describe Pike as a remorseful 50-year-old woman who receives appropriate mental health treatment and mentors other incarcerated females. They believe that if tried today under current legal standards regarding juvenile offenders, she would not face the death penalty.
Despite these arguments, Pike’s attorneys have filed a petition with the US Supreme Court in a final attempt to secure a reprieve before the scheduled September 30 execution.
Colleen Slemmer’s mother has publicly supported the continuation of the execution, stating that she wants her daughter to finally rest.
Statistics from the National Executions database indicate that only 18 women have been executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in the 1970s, compared to 1,663 men. Pike’s case has drawn particular scrutiny due to her status as the state’s only female death row inmate.
The pentagram detail makes this feel like a horror movie, but legal realities matter more than sensationalism in these cases.
200 years since a woman was executed in Tennessee? That is a staggering statistic. History feels heavy today.
Is it really justice to execute someone who was a teenager? The science on brain development seems clear enough now.
Colleen Slemmer’s family wants this done. How can we deny them closure after thirty years of waiting?
Hard to look away from the details about her abuse history. The justice system is messy and outdated here.