Tennessee Set to Execute First Woman in Over Two Centuries

Christa Pike, 50, is scheduled to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries on Wednesday. Pike is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, unless the state governor grants a last-minute clemency request.

Pike, then 18, and her boyfriend tortured and murdered 19-year-old Slemmer after meeting at a youth camp for at-risk youth. The victim's body was found with a pentagram carved into her chest, and witnesses testified Pike bragged about the crime and showed off a piece of the victim's skull.

Defense attorneys filed a clemency petition arguing the jury was never exposed to Pike's severe childhood trauma and sexual abuse. The Tennessee Supreme Court rejected requests for a stay, while the victim's mother insists the sentence be carried out as scheduled.