A convicted murderer is set to become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
It's been 30 years since Christa Gail Pike was convicted of the gruesome murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, then 19.
Following news that the Tennessee Supreme Court has officially set a date for the 49-year-old's execution, a clip of Pike's original sentencing has resurfaced.
If all goes to plan, she will become the first woman to be executed in the US state in over two centuries and just the 19th woman put to death in the nation's history.
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Pike was assisted by her ex-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and their friend Shadolla Peterson in luring Slemmer out to the woodlands in the city of Knoxville, under the pretence that they would squash a conflict around a boy, prosecutors said.
Instead, Slemmer was savagely beaten, stabbed, and bludgeoned to death, with a pentagram carved into her chest, court records state.
Just 18 at the time of the crime, Pike reportedly kept a piece of her victim's skull to show off to other students, but within 36 hours, the trio were arrested, and she had confessed to torturing and slaying Slemmer.
However, Pike claimed that they were trying to scare her, and things simply got out of hand.
A school groundskeeper discovered the body, and even claimed in court that the body 'was so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal', CBS News reported at the time.
On 22 March 1996, after just a few hours of deliberation, Pike was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by electric chair, which made her the youngest person on death row, aged just 20.
Now, a clip of her reacting to her sentencing has resurfaced on YouTube, which includes her final plea before being taken away:
She can be seen bursting into tears while being told that she was being sentenced to death by electrocution for the murder charge and 25 years in prison for the conspiracy charge.
Pike can then be heard looking back and pleading: "Can I please hug my mom before I go?"
The judge doesn't allow it, as the convict continued: "Please, can I hug her? I love you," she said back to her mother, before being taken out the door.
This week, it was announced that Pike's execution was scheduled for 30 September 2026. She has been the only woman on death row in the state of Tennessee for the majority of her 30-year incarceration.
There are just 48 female death row inmates in the entire country, though her friend Peterson is not included in this, instead receiving probation for testifying against Pike.
Shipp, on the other hand, received a life sentence as he was not eligible for the death penalty due to his age.
Pike had an additional 25 years added onto her sentence in 2003, two years after she'd tried to murder an inmate with a shoestring.
Reports state that her execution would take place at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to WBIR Channel 10.
However, her lawyers have been pushing for a life sentence without chance of parole, suggesting that due to her young age and mental health issues, she would not have been given the sentence if the crime were committed today.
They claimed that her childhood was 'fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect', telling USA TODAY: "With time and treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime."
Pike even wrote a letter to The Tennessean, claiming she had 'changed drastically' since being in prison, adding that she had 'ruined countless lives' as a 'mentally ill 18-year-old kid'.
"I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime," Pike claimed.
Topics: Death Row, Crime, US News, True Crime
Joshua Nair