CHRISTa PIKE SAYS “I AM AT PEACE” HOURS BEFORE SCHEDULED EXECUTION

TENNESSEE DEATH ROW INMATE CHRISTA PIKE SAYS SHE IS “NOT AFRAID TO DIE” AS FINAL LEGAL EFFORTS FAIL

With only hours remaining before her scheduled execution, Christa Pike says she is at peace with the possibility of death.

Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

If carried out, the execution would make Pike the first woman put to death by Tennessee in more than 200 years. She would also be the only person executed in the modern era of Tennessee capital punishment for a crime committed at age 18.

“I AM NOT AFRAID TO DIE”

In a letter written shortly before Gov. Bill Lee rejected her clemency request, Pike addressed the uncertainty surrounding her final days.

“Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace,” she wrote.

“I am not afraid to die. I am only nervous about the process.”

Pike also thanked the people who had supported her during the final weeks of her legal battle, saying she had felt an extraordinary amount of love and support.

Her comments came after years of appeals and renewed efforts to have her death sentence changed to life imprisonment without parole.

GOVERNOR DENIES FINAL CLEMENCY REQUEST

On September 28, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced that he would not intervene in Pike’s case.

After reviewing the clemency petition, Lee said he would uphold the sentence imposed by the state.

Pike’s attorneys had submitted a 226-page petition asking that her death sentence be commuted to life without parole. They argued that her age at the time of the crime and her documented history of severe childhood abuse and trauma should be considered as mitigating circumstances.

The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently rejected a last-minute request for a stay, leaving the execution scheduled to proceed.

THE 1995 MURDER OF COLLEEN SLEMMER

Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Job Corps training center in Knoxville.

Pike was 18 at the time.

According to court records and trial evidence, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and another young woman, Shadolla Peterson, were involved in luring Slemmer into a wooded area, where she was beaten and killed.

Pike and Shipp were convicted of first-degree murder. Pike received the death penalty, while Shipp was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. Peterson, who acted as a lookout, testified for the prosecution and received probation.

HER ATTORNEYS POINT TO A TRAUMATIC CHILDHOOD

Pike’s legal team has argued that the person who committed the crime at 18 should be considered in light of the circumstances of her childhood.

Her clemency petition documented allegations of prolonged childhood abuse, neglect and sexual violence. Her lawyers also cited mental-health diagnoses she received while incarcerated.

They argued that Pike had changed substantially during more than three decades in prison and that her current character should be considered separately from the teenager who committed the crime.

These arguments did not persuade the governor to commute her sentence.

THE VICTIM’S FAMILY HAS A DIFFERENT VIEW

While Pike’s attorneys and supporters have urged that her sentence be commuted, Colleen Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has supported the execution.

Martinez has spoken publicly about the nearly three decades since her daughter’s death and has said she intends to be present for the execution.

The opposing views reflect the deeply personal consequences surrounding the case: Pike’s supporters have focused on her age and background at the time of the crime, while Slemmer’s family has continued to live with the loss of a daughter who was 19 when she was killed.

TENNESSEE’S RARE EXECUTION OF A WOMAN

Executions of women remain extremely uncommon in the United States.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 18 women have been executed in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Tennessee has carried out executions of men in recent years, but no woman has been executed by the state in more than two centuries.

Pike’s scheduled execution has therefore drawn national and international attention.

THE FINAL HOURS

Pike has spent more than three decades on death row.

Now, with the governor declining clemency and the Supreme Court rejecting the final request for a stay, her execution remains scheduled for September 30.

In her final public comments before the scheduled execution, Pike did not claim that the past could be undone.

Instead, she spoke about the people who had stood beside her during the final days.

“I am humbled beyond words,” she wrote.

And as the hours pass, the case that began with the 1995 killing of a 19-year-old woman has reached its final stage — leaving Pike, her supporters, Slemmer’s family and the state of Tennessee confronting the consequences of a crime that happened more than three decades ago.