TENNESSEE EXECUTES CHRISTA PIKE, FIRST WOMAN IN 200 YEARS

Tennessee executed Christa Pike on Wednesday for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, making her the first woman put to death by the state in 200 years. Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend were convicted of killing Slemmer, a 19-year-old classmate at Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors said Pike believed Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area, where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed her. The case drew widespread attention at the time because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of those involved, and a satanic symbol carved into the victim's body. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced on Monday that he would not grant clemency, and Pike's lawyers asked the US Supreme Court to stay the execution.

Pike did not dispute her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argued that a death sentence was not appropriate given her age at the time and an untreated mental illness they said followed a childhood of sexual abuse and neglect. Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike was sexually abused from toddlerhood and raped at 11 and 17, and said her trial lawyers failed to present the jury with this history or to argue her age as a mitigating factor. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pike told police she had initially intended only to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her during a frenzied attack. Her clemency petition argued that her untreated mental illness and background left her unable to "put the brakes on".

Slemmer's mother said she wanted the execution to proceed, saying she had waited decades to see the sentence carried out. In a statement, Pike said she was "a mentally ill 18-year-old kid" and that it had taken her years to grasp the gravity of what she had done and how many lives she had affected. The Supreme Court's response to the stay request was not confirmed in the material reviewed. Governor Lee's decision followed his review of the clemency petition submitted by Pike's attorneys.