Tennessee to execute a woman for first time in 200 years

A woman is set to be executed in Tennessee today for the first time in 200 years. 

Christa Pike became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row in the US when, aged 18, she and her then-boyfriend tortured and killed a classmate in 1995.

Pike, now 50, is due to be executed on Wednesday in what would be the southern state's first execution of a woman since 1820, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time, were convicted in the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps.

Shipp was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.

The case received widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of those involved, and because the victim was found with a satanic symbol carved into her body.

Prosecutors said Pike feared Ms Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed the teenager.

Pike does not deny her guilt, but her lawyers and supporters argue a death sentence is not the appropriate punishment for a crime committed at that age by someone who they say had an untreated mental illness after experiencing an abusive childhood.

Tennessee governor Bill Lee said on Monday that he would not grant clemency.

'I am at peace'

Before learning the governor would not be intervening in her case, Pike wrote in a letter shared with NBC News, Sky's partner network: "Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace.

"I am not afraid to die... I'm only nervous about the process."

Pike's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to stop the execution but the request was reportedly rejected and it is now set to go ahead on Wednesday.

Representing Pike, assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell said she was sexually abused starting from when she was a toddler and that she was raped at 11 and 17.

Mr Ferrell said Pike's lawyers at the penalty phase of her trial did not present the jury with what he said was critical information about her past or argue that her age should be a consideration.

He added that more is known today about adolescent brain development and that Pike's death sentence is an outlier. He also noted that Shipp, who was denied parole last year, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because of his age.

'It sickens me now'

Pike, who was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, told police she had not intended to murder Ms Slemmer but ended up killing her in a frenzied attack.

Pike's lawyers said her untreated mental illness and background made her unable to "put the brakes on".

"I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid," Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.

"It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I'd done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime."

Robin M Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said: "If Christa Pike was tried today, I do not believe a jury that knew about the documented sexual abuse and neglect she experienced as a child would sentence her to death."

More from Sky News:
Man released from death row after DNA evidence
Lindsay Clancy lawyer claims 'no evidence' she killed her children

'She trusted everybody'

Ms Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has insisted she wants the lethal injection to go ahead, saying she has waited decades to see Pike's sentence carried out.

"Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run," Ms Martinez said.

"She trusted everybody, and that was her downfall."

The Death Penalty Information Center said that 275 people have been executed for crimes committed between the ages of 18 and 20 in the modern death penalty era in the US, but that death sentences for those in that age group have become increasingly rare.

Executions of female inmates are also rare in the US. Since 1976, 18 women have been executed - about 1% of all executions - according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In 2023, Missouri executed Amber McLaughlin, a transgender woman, for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the
first execution of a transgender woman in the US. Georgia executed a woman in 2015.

In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the US government has put a female inmate to death.

(c) Sky News 2026: Tennessee to execute a woman for first time in 200 years