Historic Execution Choice Sparks Controversy: Woman Faces Grim Alternative to Lethal Injection After 200 Years
So, get this—a woman convicted of a grisly murder from three decades ago is about to become Tennessee’s first female executed in over 200 years. And here’s the kicker: she might actually get to pick the method of execution, which could be the state’s famously brutal electric chair. Christa Gail Pike, who was only 18 when she and two others lured their classmate Colleen Slemmer into the woods under the guise of peace, ended up committing a murder so savage it included a pentagram carved into the victim’s chest. Now, decades later, after years on death row, Pike’s execution date is set, stirring a messy mix of legal debates and questions about justice, mental health, and whether an electric chair option in the 21st century is just… what? Stay tuned, because this one’s loaded with dark twists and some serious “only in Tennessee” vibes.
A convicted murderer will be the first woman to be put to death in Tennessee in 200 years, and she could choose a brutal execution method.
Christa Gail Pike was convicted of murdering her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, three decades ago.
Pike, her ex-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and their friend Shadolla Peterson are said to have lured Slemmer to the woodlands in Knoxville, telling her they would make peace over tensions about a boy, prosecutors alleged.
However, when Slemmer got there, she was instead beaten, stabbed, and bludgeoned to death.
Sickeningly, a pentagram was also carved into her chest, court records say.
At the time of the horrid crime, Pike was 18 years old, and allegedly kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull to brag about her crime to other students at school.
However, within just 36 hours, the trio were arrested, and she confessed to the torture and murder of Slemmer.
Colleen Slemmer was lured to her death (Find a Grave)
During her confession, Pike claimed that the group were only trying to scare her, and things happened to get out of hand, leading to her murder.
Slemmer’s body was discovered by the school groundskeeper, telling the court she ‘was so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal’, CBS News reported at the time.
After a few hours of deliberation, on 22 March 1996, Pike was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, making her the youngest person on death row at just 20 years old.
Inmates on death row in Tennessee are usually killed via lethal injection; however, this might not be the case for Pike.
Technically, the electric chair is also authorised by the state, but it’s only given as an option to those who committed a capital crime before 1 January 1999.
This means Pike technically could choose the brutal method.
Electrocution is also used as the only option in the state if lethal injection is deemed to be unconstitutional or if any drug needed to carry out the execution is unavailable through no fault of the Tennessee Department of Corrections.
The convict was sentenced to death after murdering her classmate (Tennessee Department of Corrections)
But if electrocution is decided to be unconstitutional, state statutes will say that ‘any constitutional method of execution’ can be allowed in that instance.
This means that any method can be used in place of the chair.
During a long time waiting in prison, the Tennessee Supreme Court officially set a date for Pike’s execution to take place.
The 49-year-old will then become the first woman to be executed in the US state in over 200 years.
Reports say that her execution will take place at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to WBIR Channel 10.
But her lawyers have been trying to get her off with a life sentence without chance of parole, suggesting that her mental health issues and age at the time of the crime should be taken into account.
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