Tennessee’s Only Woman on Death Row Refuses Last Meal Before Execution
For nearly three decades, the name Christa Pike has remained tied to one of Tennessee’s most notorious murder cases.
Now, at 50 years old, Pike is facing the final hours of her life after Tennessee’s governor rejected her request for clemency.
But as her scheduled execution approaches, Pike has made an unusual decision.
She has chosen not to request a final meal.
Pike is Tennessee’s only woman currently on death row. If the execution proceeds as scheduled on Wednesday morning, she would become the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.
The execution is expected to take place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, where Pike is scheduled to die by lethal injection.
The Tennessee Department of Corrections confirmed that she has not selected a final meal, despite the opportunity ordinarily given to death-row prisoners to choose what they want to eat before their execution.
Her death sentence dates back to a murder committed in January 1995.
At the time, Pike was only 18 years old.
According to the case against her, she and her then-boyfriend, along with another female friend, lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to an isolated location on the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.
Slemmer was then tortured and killed on January 12, 1995.
Pike was eventually convicted of the murder and sentenced to death.
But that was not the end of her criminal case.
Six years later, in August 2001, Pike was convicted of attempting to kill another inmate, Patricia Jones. Authorities said Pike tried to strangle Jones using a shoestring.
That conviction resulted in an additional 25 years being added to her sentence.
Then, in 2012, another incident brought Pike back into the spotlight.
Authorities uncovered a plan to help her escape from the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville. The alleged escape plot involved a corrections officer and a New Jersey personal trainer who had been communicating with Pike.
Now, after years on death row, Pike’s legal team made one final attempt to stop her execution.
Her attorneys asked Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to grant clemency, pointing to abuse Pike experienced during her childhood.
But on Monday, Lee rejected the request and announced that he would not intervene.
Before receiving the governor’s decision, Pike had written to NBC News about the possibility of her execution.
She said she had reached a level of peace about whatever decision was made, adding that death itself did not frighten her as much as the execution process.
Pike also spoke publicly about another woman facing a highly publicized criminal case: Lindsay Clancy.
Pike told the Times of London that she felt a sense of connection with Clancy and said she was pleased when Clancy’s case ended in a mistrial.
Pike described both women as having faced circumstances she considered connected to issues affecting women.
She also pointed to her own age at the time of the 1995 murder, saying she was a mentally ill 18-year-old who committed the crime alongside two other people, while she alone received a death sentence.
Her comments also raised a broader issue about women who, in her view, do not receive the help they need.
But with the clemency request now rejected, the focus has shifted to the execution itself.
Pike has made one final request concerning who will be involved.
She wants an entirely female team to administer the lethal injection.
Her lawyers have argued that having men participate could cause her additional trauma, particularly because of her history of abuse.
Tennessee corrections officials have indicated that they may consider granting that request.
For now, however, the central question remains whether the scheduled execution will go ahead Wednesday morning.
And as the final hours approach, Pike has already made one decision about how she wants those hours to unfold:
She will not be choosing a last meal.
(Source: Nigerian Tribune)
