Crime · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Bill Lee Rejects Christa Pike Clemency, Upholds Death Sentence for Colleen Slemmer Murder
Gov Bill Lee denies clemency, keeping Pike's execution on schedule. Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.
Whether lethal injection chiefly risks trauma or doctor secrecy.
7 of 8 outlets skipped it: she requests none of her loved ones attend execution.
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NBC News
“will likely create ‘severe mental suffering and superadded psychological terror under Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol.’”Read the original ↗
Memphis Flyer
“doctors should be present, but oaths taken and the rules of many medical societies won’t allow them to cooperate.”Read the original ↗
NBC News emphasises mental suffering risks in lethal injection, while Memphis Flyer emphasises doctors' non participation and lethal injection secrecy.
Clemency denied
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee rejected Christa Pike’s clemency request and upheld her death sentence, saying, "I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene." Christa Pike, now 50, was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, who was 19 at the time, and Pike is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday. The case is the first time in more than 200 years that Tennessee would execute a woman, and Pike would be the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years.
Pike is set to be put to death on Wednesday after Lee denied clemency, and Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend, who was 17 at the time, killed Colleen Slemmer. The execution is tied to the killing’s circumstances, including that a satanic symbol was carved into Slemmer’s body, and the BBC said the murder created a media frenzy in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995.
Defense seeks a stay
Christa Pike’s attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a last-minute reprieve, and the BBC said the petition sought to commute her death sentence to life in prison.
Assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell told the BBC that the governor’s decision "leaves unanswered vital questions about Tennessee's execution protocol."
Pike’s attorneys argued that an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, and the BBC quoted them saying, "an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, and 18 is too young to face execution,".
Pike’s legal team filed a clemency petition earlier this month, and it described Pike as the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years if the execution proceeds.
Pike’s attorneys argued that Pike was failed by people and institutions that should have shown her care and meaningful intervention, and it quoted their statement about the 18-year-old no longer existing.
Victim’s family and stakes
May Martinez, Colleen Slemmer’s mother, insisted she wants Pike’s execution to move forward so that her daughter "finally can be resting," and the BBC quoted her position. Civil rights groups like the ACLU and Amnesty International called on the public to reach out to the governor’s office to ask that he take Pike off death row, while Lee declined to halt the execution. Pike had a documented history of childhood sexual abuse, abandonment and neglect, and her attorneys said, "The 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists."
Pike’s attorneys said Pike was failed by people and institutions that should have shown her care and meaningful intervention, and it quoted their statement about the 18-year-old no longer existing. Pike is scheduled to be executed on 30 September after years of failed appeals, and the case is a media frenzy in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995 when Slemmer was found with a pentagram carved into her chest.