Tennessee governor declines to halt execution of state's lone woman on death row

Updated 2 hours ago.

Key points

• Attorneys Stephen Ferrell, Kelly Gleason and Randy Spivey remarked the governor's decision "leaves unanswered vital questions about Tennessee's execution protocol".
• Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens.
• Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has denied a clemency request from death row inmate Christa Pike.
• If it proceeds, Pike would be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
• At the time of her incarceration, the 21-year-old was the youngest person on death row, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has denied a clemency request from death row inmate Christa Pike. This person is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.

She may have one last chance at halting her execution as her attorneys have filed a petition with the US Supreme Court hoping for a last-minute reprieve.

If it proceeds, Pike would be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Only 18 women have been executed in the US since the 1970s, compared to 1, 663 men.

Killer Christa Pike to be executed within days – but her defence say she's a victim too.

"After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike's request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene, " Governor Lee remarked in an official note.

Pike's legal team had filed the clemency petition earlier this month, requesting that her death sentence be commuted to life in prison.

As she would be the first person the state "executes in the modern death penalty era who was a teenager at the time of the offence", moving ahead with Pike's execution puts Tennessee "on singular footing", her attorneys remarked.

"With this decision, the State of Tennessee is ignoring what both science and our legal system have decided: an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, and 18 is too young to face execution, " they remarked in an official note on Monday.

When the 19-year-old was discovered with a pentagram – a symbol of Satanic ritual – carved into her chest, the murder of Colleen Slemmer created a media frenzy in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995.

Pike had accused Colleen of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend. Two other residents at the camp afterwards testified that Pike had bragged concerning the murder before and after, and indicated them a piece of Colleen's skull.

While then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp- who was 17 at the time – was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole, a year afterwards, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

Pike is scheduled to be executed on 30 September after years of failed appeals.

Colleen's mother has insisted she wants Pike's execution to move forward so that her daughter "finally can be resting".

Pike has a documented history of childhood sexual abuse, abandonment and neglect. Her lawyers believe that if she was discovered guilty of the same crime today as a teenager she would not receive a death sentence.

"The 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists, " her attorneys remarked. "Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions, receives proper treatment for her mental illness, and provides for and guides fellow incarcerated women."

In the years since her sentencing, her defence team have uncovered details regarding her childhood that they say the jury never had the chance to consider.

For now, tennessee governor declines to halt execution of state' s lone woman on death remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.