Tennessee set to execute woman for first time in 200 years

According to the Associated Press, Tennessee is set to execute death row inmate Christa Pike on Wednesday, becoming the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.

Pike, 50, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. She was convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Knoxville Job Corps centre, in 1995.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp were convicted of killing Slemmer. Shipp, then 17, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee denied Pike’s clemency request on Monday. “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,” Lee said.

Pike’s lawyers have asked the US Supreme Court to stop the execution, citing her age during the crime and a history of childhood abuse and neglect. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a request for a stay made at the last minute.

If it proceeds it would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman since 1820.