The brutal homicide of a 19-year-old woman shocked Tennessee nearly three decades ago. Now, the woman convicted in the case is set to make history.
After Christa Pike’s last attempt to live was denied, she is scheduled to receive the ultimate penalty on Wednesday, September 30, for violently ending the life of her classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
If the execution takes place, Pike will be the first woman to get the d*ath sentence in Tennessee in 200 years.
Christa Pike is set to become the first woman to get the d*eath penalty in Tennessee since 1820
Tennessee Department of Corrections
Trigger warning: this article contains graphic details that may be distressing to some.
Three decades have passed since the body of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer was found with a pentagram, a symbol of Satanic ritual, carved into her chest.
The case led to Christa Pike being the prime suspect, and a year later, she became one of the youngest woman to be put on de*th row in modern U.S. history.
It was only after her sentencing when the depth of the s**ual ab*se she went through as a child came to light.
On Monday, Tennessee’s governor Bill Lee denied Christa’s request for clemency.
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid,” the now 50-year-old woman, waiting to be executed on September 30, said in a statement included in her clemency petition.
Christa was convicted of slaying her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995
On January 12, 1995, the victim named Colleen had last spoken to her mother at around 6 p.m. and said three students at her Job Corps program in Knoxville were bothering her.
It is believed Christa was one of the students she was referring to.
Later that evening, Christa managed to lure Colleen to Tyson Park, claiming she wanted to make peace with her and also offered her m*rij*ana.
It is believed Christa then tortured Colleen by physically striking her repeatedly. Her then-17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and their classmate Shadolla Peterson were accomplices.
Christa allegedly unleashed her rage on her because she thought Colleen was a romantic rival.
For about 30 minutes to an hour, Colleen begged for her life as the teenagers kicked, slashed, and beat her up.
19-year-old Colleen Slemmer was lured to a park and tortured by Christa, her boyfriend, and a third accomplice
“She wouldn’t shut up,” Christa later told the cops in a taped confession. “She kept talking and talking. She would start talking again, and I would say, ‘Shut up.’ I didn’t want to hear her talking.”
Christa delivered the fatal blow after she and her boyfriend tortured the victim and took her life.
Colleen’s body was found the next day, and cops arrested the boyfriend and girlfriend a couple of days later.
Shadolla Peterson was also arrested, but she was given six years probation after agreeing to testify against Christa and Tadaryl.
During the investigation, Christa was reportedly boastful about ending Colleen’s life and even showed off a fragment of her skull to other Job Corps students.
She was given the de*th sentence after being convicted of first-degree m**der.
Tadaryl, who had admitted to carving the star-shapped Satanic symbol into their victim’s body, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because of his age.
“She wouldn’t shut up,” Christa told the cops in a taped confession
Decades after the gruesome homicide, Christa does not deny her guilt.
However, her attorneys and supporters argue that being executed was too harsh a punishment to dole out to an 18-year-old, who had a history of untreated mental illness from being neglected and traumatized as a child.
The revelations of her being ab*sed only came to light after her sentencing.
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Christa was s**ually ab*sed from the time she was a toddler, and this was critical information from her past that her lawyers failed to present to the jury during the penalty phase of her trial.
Stephen also said that Christa was allegedly rap*d when she was 11 and 17 and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
As part of the clemency petition, Stephen further argued that there is better understanding today about adolescent brain development, and other 18-year-olds sentenced to de*th in Tennessee have had their sentences reduced since.
It was only after her sentencing when Christa’s history of traumatic childhood experiences came to light
Christa, who never denied her role in her classmate’s homicide, said in her recent statement: “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,” she continued. “It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime.”
Over the years, the number of perpetrators aged 18, 19, and 20 who are given the de*th sentence has become exceedingly rare.
Reports reveal that 275 people from this age group across the country have been executed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, commented on the case and said: “If Christa Pike was tried today, I do not believe a jury that knew about the documented s**ual ab*se and neglect she experienced as a child would sentence her to de*th.”
Some believe Christa would not have been sentenced to de*ath if she was tried today with her childhood experiences known
Meanwhile, Colleen’s mother May Martinez said she has waited decades to see her daughter’s k*ller be given the lethal injection.
She said the chance to grow up was robbed from Colleen, who volunteered to help during Special Olympics competitions and knew how to take apart a computer and then put it back together.
May still thinks about the harrowing manner in which her daughter’s life came to an end.
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” she said.
If Christa’s execution takes place on Wednesday as scheduled, it would be the state’s first execution of a woman since 1820.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” one commented, while another wrote, “So. She was just a baby and her emotions and anger took her over”
