Tennessee’s Supreme Court has rejected Christa Pike’s latest attempt to stop her execution, which is set for September 30 and would make her the first woman put to death in the state in 200 years.
Christa Pike’s clock has nearly run out. The Tennessee Supreme Court has turned down her final legal challenge, clearing the way for the state to carry out her execution as planned on September 30.
Pike’s lawyers tried a different angle
Pike’s team didn’t argue innocence, but that the method of execution itself could be unconstitutional.
Pike has thrombocytosis, a condition that causes unusually high platelet counts, and her lawyers said going ahead with lethal injection anyway could count as cruel and unusual punishment.
They also referred to her extremely chaotic and traumatic upbringing. Pike was sexually abused throughout her childhood by her grandmother’s boyfriend and raped several times as an adult in addition to surviving other forms of abuse and neglects.
She has since been diagnosed with PTSD and bipolar disorder. Her legal team said parts of the execution process, being strapped to a gurney, watched by male staff, having a line inserted near her chest or groin, could cause serious psychological harm given her background.
The court, however, wasn’t convinced and judges ruled Pike hadn’t shown that her condition would make the execution unconstitutional.
The date of the execution stands
Tennessee did agree to some changes, though. Female officers will transport her to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, and officials say they’ll try to keep only female staff in the room when she’s watched.
She’ll get a privacy screen for showering and using the bathroom, and she can meet with a spiritual adviser in her final 12 hours, who may be allowed into the execution chamber itself.
Her lawyers now plan to take the case to the US Supreme Court. At the same time, they’re still pushing Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole.
The murder of Colleen Slemmer
Pike was 18 in 1995 when she lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps Center, to an isolated spot and killed her together with her then-boyfriend and other friend. Slemmer was beaten and stabbed to death.
Pike’s boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, was 17 and couldn’t be sentenced to death. He’s serving life instead.
Pike is now 50 and the only woman on death row in Tennessee. In 2001, while already incarcerated, she was convicted of attempted first-degree murder after attacking another inmate.
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