Tennessee is set to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years

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Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday in what would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in 200 years.

Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer. The case got widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body.

Pike does not deny her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argue a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teen with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect. Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday that he would not grant clemency. Pike’s attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to stay the execution.

Pike’s attorneys said she experienced an exceptionally traumatic and abusive childhood.

Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike was sexually abused starting from when she was a toddler and that she was raped at ages 11 and 17. He 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.

Pike was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pike told police she initially only wanted to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her in a frenzied attack. In her clemency petition, Pike’s attorneys said her untreated mental illness and background made her unable to “put the brakes on.”

“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize 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,” Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.

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Ferrell said more today is known about adolescent brain development and that Pike’s death sentence is an outlier. He noted that Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because of his age. He was denied parole last year. A third teen admitted to being an accessory and received probation.

In the modern death penalty era, Ferrell said, other 18-year-olds who were sentenced to death in Tennessee have since had their sentences reduced.

The Death Penalty Information Center said 275 people nationwide have been executed for crimes they committed at age 18, 19 or 20 in the modern death penalty era, but that death sentences for those in that age group have become increasingly rare.

“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,” Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said.

Speaking by telephone from Florida, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, also pointed to her daughter’s age and said Slemmer never got a chance to grow up.

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

Martinez said her daughter volunteered with the Special Olympics, loved roller skating and wanted to pursue a career in computers.

“She was easygoing. She was a computer geek to begin with. She and my husband would build and tear apart the computers constantly,” Martinez said. “She trusted everybody, and that was her downfall.”

She said her daughter called her from Job Corps on the night of the murder, but the call was dropping because of bad reception. When Martinez called back, her daughter had already gone out.

“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst. Colleen’s birthday was last week. She would have been 51,” Martinez said.

The killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism, into her body.

If Pike’s execution proceeds as scheduled, it would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman since 1820, Maher said.

Executions of female inmates are also rare in the U.S. Since 1976, 18 women have been executed in the country, representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center.

Most recently, Missouri in 2023 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 U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government has put a female inmate to death. Georgia executed a woman in 2015.

《诺克斯维尔新闻哨兵报》/《今日美国》网络/Imagn Images

克丽斯塔·派克18岁时因嫉妒杀害了一名同学，成为被判处死刑的最年轻的女性之一。如今50岁的她将于周三被执行死刑，这将是田纳西州200年来首次处决女性。

派克和她的男友因1995年杀害19岁的科琳·斯莱默而被定罪。斯莱默是她们在诺克斯维尔职业培训中心的同学。检方称，派克担心斯莱默是情敌，便将她诱骗到一处偏僻的地方，与男友一起对斯莱默进行折磨并最终将其杀害。此案因凶手手段残忍、涉案人员年龄较小以及受害者身上被刻有撒旦符号而引起广泛关注。

派克并不否认自己的罪行，但她的律师和支持者辩称，对于一个童年时期遭受残酷性虐待和忽视，且患有未经治疗的精神疾病的青少年来说，在她那个年纪犯下的罪行不应判处死刑。斯莱默的母亲则希望执行注射死刑，她说她已经等待了几十年，就为了看到派克的死刑得到执行。

田纳西州州长比尔·李周一宣布，他不会赦免派克。派克的律师已请求最高法院暂缓执行死刑。

派克的律师表示，她经历了极其痛苦和虐待的童年。

联邦助理辩护律师斯蒂芬·费雷尔表示，派克从蹒跚学步时就开始遭受性虐待，并在11岁和17岁时遭到强奸。他说，在审判的量刑阶段，派克的律师没有向陪审团提供他所说的关于她过去的关键信息，也没有提出她的年龄应该被考虑在内。

派克后来被诊断出患有双相情感障碍和创伤后应激障碍。派克告诉警方，她最初只想和斯莱默打架，但最终在疯狂的攻击中杀死了她。在她的减刑申请书中，派克的律师表示，她未经治疗的精神疾病和过往经历使她无法“控制自己的行为”。

“我当时是个患有精神疾病的18岁少年。我花了多年时间才意识到自己所作所为的严重性。更久之后，我才接受自己影响了多少人的生活。我夺走了别人的孩子、姐妹、朋友的生命。现在想到自己竟然有能力犯下这样的罪行，我就感到恶心，”派克在她的赦免申请书中写道。

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费雷尔表示，如今人们对青少年大脑发育有了更多了解，派克的死刑判决是个例外。他指出，派克的男友塔达里尔·希普当时年仅17岁，因未成年而被判处终身监禁，但有可能获得假释。去年，他的假释申请被驳回。另一名青少年承认自己是帮凶，被判缓刑。

费雷尔说，在现代死刑时代，田纳西州其他被判处死刑的 18 岁青年后来都获得了减刑。

死刑信息中心表示，在现代死刑时代，全国已有 275 人因在 18、19 或 20 岁时犯下的罪行而被处决，但对该年龄段的人判处死刑的情况越来越少见。

“如果克丽斯塔·派克今天受审，我不认为一个了解她童年时期遭受的性虐待和忽视的陪审团会判处她死刑，”死刑信息中心执行主任罗宾·M·马赫说。

斯莱默的母亲梅·马丁内斯在佛罗里达州通过电话表示，她也指出女儿的年龄，并说斯莱默从未有机会长大成人。

“每次想到这件事，我都会想到科琳感受到的那种痛苦，以及她努力站起来奔跑的样子，”马丁内斯说。

马丁内斯说，她的女儿曾是特殊奥林匹克运动会的志愿者，喜欢轮滑，并希望从事计算机方面的工作。

“她性格随和。她本来就是个电脑迷。她和我丈夫经常一起组装和拆卸电脑，”马丁内斯说。“她信任所有人，而这正是她的致命弱点。”

她说，谋杀案当晚，女儿从青年就业培训中心给她打过电话，但因为信号不好，通话断断续续。马丁内斯再次拨打电话时，女儿已经出门了。

“没有一天，甚至没有一分钟，我不想念科琳。节假日最难熬。科琳的生日是上周，她本该51岁了，”马丁内斯说。

这起谋杀案震惊了诺克斯维尔市。检方称，派克用美工刀割伤了斯莱默，并用一大块沥青殴打她。这起案件的某些细节在20世纪80年代和90年代的“撒旦恐慌”期间引发了人们对撒旦崇拜的恐惧。派克的男友希普承认，是他把五角星——一个与撒旦教相关的星形符号——刻在了斯莱默的身上。

马赫说，如果派克的死刑按计划执行，这将是田纳西州自 1820 年以来首次处决女性。

在美国，处决女性囚犯的情况也很少见。据该中心统计，自 1976 年以来，美国共有 18 名女性被处决，约占所有死刑执行的 1%。

最近，密苏里州于2023年处决了跨性别女性安珀·麦克劳克林，她因2003年的一起杀人案而被判处死刑。这被认为是美国首例处决跨性别女性的案例。2021年，联邦政府处决了丽莎·蒙哥马利，这是近七十年来美国政府首次处决女性囚犯。佐治亚州于2015年处决了一名女性。