Christa Pike is set to become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years. She was sentenced to death for a murder committed more than 30 years ago.
The BBC reported on Sunday, September 27, that Pike is preparing to be executed by lethal injection in Tennessee.
According to the report, Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Ship, assaulted and killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
They had met Colleen at a vocational training center for teenagers with behavioral problems.
The murder took place in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1995 and sparked significant media attention after Colleen’s body was found with a pentagram, a five-pointed star associated with satanic rituals, carved into her chest.
After years of unsuccessful appeals, Pike’s execution has been scheduled for Wednesday. If the sentence is carried out, she will become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Since the 1970s, only 18 women have been executed in the United States, compared with 1,663 men.
