A federal appellate court has ordered the stay of execution by lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike one hour before the scheduled execution at 10 a.m. on Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ordered the stay of the execution of death sentence “until further order of this court.”
“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.
Pike, a student at the Knoxville Job Corps Center, was 18 years old when she, together with two other teenagers, tortured and killed Colleen Slemmer on January 12, 1995 in Knoxville.
Before the killing, she thought that 19-year-old Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 then.
Pike and Shipp with the help of another teenager lured Slemmer, who was 19, into a wooded area near the University of Tennessee campus. Slemmer was beaten and stabbed. A pentagram was cut into her chest, and Pike later showed classmates a piece of Slemmer’s skull that she kept as a trophy.
Slemmer’s body was found the next day.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1996. Her boyfriend, Shipp, got a life sentence and is now eligible for parole. Shadolla Peterson, who was also involved and testified against Pike and Shipp, received probation.
The childhood her lawyers say the jury never heard
Almost thirty years later, Pike’s lawyers question whether the 18-year-old who committed the crime should be judged without considering the trauma that shaped her life. Her lawyers describe Pike’s childhood filled with repeated sexual abuse, rape, and neglect.
Pike’s legal team also say she was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her lawyers argued that during the original sentencing her young age and lack of maturity were not fully considered.
The defense points out that Pike is the only person in Tennessee’s modern death penalty era to face execution for a crime committed at age 18. Records from the Death Penalty Information Center show the death sentences of the other seven Tennessee defendants who were 18 at the time of their crimes have been overturned.
Her attorneys say the legal system did not fully consider the effects of her childhood trauma and mental illness. They also argue that our understanding of how the adolescent brain develops has changed a lot since Pike was sentenced in 1996.
The state, however, has maintained her death sentence.
The final legal fight
Pike’s lawyers have mounted several last-minute challenges to Tennessee’s execution procedures, challenging the state’s lethal-injection protocol. They claimed that Pike’s medical and psychological conditions could expose her to severe suffering during the process.
Her attorneys have argued that her complex PTSD creates a risk of severe retraumatization.
A group of trauma experts has warned that restraints, invasive procedures, loss of control over one’s body, and other parts of an execution could trigger traumatic flashbacks for survivors of sexual violence.
The Tennessee Supreme Court denied Pike’s request for a certificate of commutation and set September 30 as the execution date.
Governor Bill Lee also rejected her clemency request on Monday.
A mother who has waited 30 years
May Martinez, Slemmer’s mother, said she wants to witness it so she can finally feel that her daughter is gone and that she no longer has to fear Pike appearing somewhere in her life.
The two sides of this case are very different. Pike’s defenders point to the abuse and trauma they say shaped the teenager who committed the crime. Slemmer’s family points to the 19-year-old woman whose life was violently taken.
A rare case for a woman on death row
Currently, the state’s Department of Correction listed 45 people on death row. Pike is the only woman in the list. Across the country, there are 45 women on death row, but they make up only a small part of death row prisoners and executions.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, only 18 women have been executed nationwide, compared with more than 1,600 men, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Pike’s case is peculiar because of her age when the crime happened. If the execution proceeds, she will be the only person in the state’s modern era to be executed for a crime committed at age 18.
