The execution of Christa Pike will proceed Wednesday after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday he would not intervene.
Pike’s execution would mark the first time a woman has been executed in Tennessee in 200 years. Pike is now the only woman on death row in the state.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Jobs Corps worker from Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 19 years old. She was 21 when she entered the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center (formerly the Tennessee Prison for Women), the youngest person on death row.
While incarcerated in 2001, Pike was convicted of attempted first-degree murder in the assault on inmate Patricia Jones, TDOC said.
“After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the state of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” Lee said in a statement Monday afternoon.
Pike’s lawyers said they are “deeply saddened and heartbroken” by Lee’s decision.
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,” said a statement from Pike’s legal team. “This decision also leaves unanswered vital questions about Tennessee’s execution protocol.
“We will continue to support Christa through every remaining avenue and advocate for a system that is transparent for the people of Tennessee.”
Pike is scheduled to be executed at noon Wednesday at Nashville’s Rivberbend Maximum Security Institution.
