The execution date for Tennessee's only female death row inmate, who carved a pentagram into her murder victim's chest, has been scheduled by the state's Supreme Court.
Christa Pike received the death sentence when she was 18 for torturing and murdering fellow 18-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The two were both Knoxville Job Corps students.
Slemmer was stabbed and beaten by Pike with her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp on the University of Tennessee´s Agricultural campus.
The two carved a pentagram into Slemmer's chest, and Pike took a piece of her skull as a souvenir, according to investigators.
Shipp, a Memphis native, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike also received a secondary conviction in 2004 for trying to strangle a fellow inmate during a prison fight, which added 25 years to her sentence.
Pike's lawyers previously asked the Tennessee high court to commute her sentence because of her age and 'severe mental illness at the time of her crime.'
It was also argued Pike was the victim of sexual abuse and neglect as a child, according to her lawyers. She suffered from bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders that were not diagnosed until years after her arrest.
'With time and treatment, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime,' her attorneys wrote in a statement published on Wednesday.
Christa Pike received the death sentence when she was 18 for torturing and murdering fellow 18-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995
Slemmer was stabbed and beaten by Pike alongside Tadaryl Shipp, Pike´s boyfriend at the time, on the University of Tennessee ´s Agricultural campus
Tennessee began a new round of executions in May after a three-year pause that resulted from the state not properly testing lethal injection drugs for purity and potency.
An independent review found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been fully tested.
Tennesse Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's Office also admitted in court that two of the people most responsible for overseeing Tennessee´s lethal injection drugs 'incorrectly testified' under oath that officials were properly testing the chemicals.
Kelley Henry, a federal public defender who represents several death row inmates, said on Wednesday that the state has yet to answer questions about the last execution where Byron Black said he was 'hurting so bad' while he lay on the gurney.
Black´s autopsy found pulmonary edema, a condition of fluid in the lungs his attorneys said would feel like drowning or suffocating.
'We will continue to fight to bring the truth of what happened to light before these executions move forward to protect our clients from being tortured the way Byron was,' Henry said.
The court on Tuesday also set execution dates for Tony Carruthers, Gary Sutton and Anthony Hines.
Carruthers was convicted in 1996 of robbing and killing Marcellos Anderson, 21, Frederick Tucker, 17, and Anderson´s mother, Delois Anderson, 43, in 1994.
The court on Tuesday also set execution dates for Tony Carruthers (left), Gary Sutton (center) and Anthony Hines (right)
Tennessee began a new round of executions in May after a three-year pause that resulted from the state not properly testing lethal injection drugs for purity and potency
Authorities said Anderson was a drug dealer, and Carruthers was trying to take over the illegal drug trade in their Memphis neighborhood.
Carruthers was forced to represent himself at trial after repeatedly complaining about his court-appointed attorneys and threatening to harm several of them.
Hines was convicted of the fatal stabbing of Katherine Jean Jenkins, 54, a motel maid in Kingston Springs in 1985.
Sutton was sentenced to death for murdering Tommy Griffin, 24, with a shotgun in 1992. Sutton had already been convicted of the murder of Griffin´s sister, Connie Branam, whose body was discovered in her burned vehicle.
Sutton has maintained his innocence. A statement from his lawyers reads, 'the scientific evidence linking Gary to the case is from disgraced state medical examiner Charles Harlan who was later stripped of his license.'
The statement added that Griffin was Sutton's friend, and 'there is no motive for the crime and no direct evidence linking Gary to the murder.'
Harold Nichols, 64, is also scheduled to be executed after an order from earlier this year. Nichols was convicted of raping and murdering Karen Pulley in Hamilton County in 1988.