A federal appellate court issued a stay of execution on Wednesday morning, preventing the carrying out of the capital sentence against the sole female inmate on Tennessee’s death row approximately one hour prior to the scheduled execution time.
Christa Pike killed Colleen Slemmer
The judges stated their intention to examine whether the defendant’s claims regarding childhood sexual abuse and rape were comprehensively evaluated prior to the imposition of the capital sentence. This case subsequently became recognized as the Jobs Corps Murder, a designation derived from the fact that both Pike and Slemmer held membership in the Jobs Corps organization at the time of the offense. In 1996, she was convicted of the murder of Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old victim, whose death occurred on the University of Tennessee campus during the preceding year. Pike collaborated with two accomplices—Tadaryl Shipp, 17, and Shadolla Peterson, 18—in orchestrating and executing the torture and homicide of Slemmer.
Before receiving notification on Monday regarding Lee’s decision not to intervene in her case, Pike, 50, communicated in a correspondence addressed to NBC News, which was subsequently disseminated through her spiritual adviser “Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace. “I’m only nervous about the process. If executed, Pike would represent the first female person in excess of two centuries whom the state has subjected to capital punishment, as documented in historical archives.
“I am not afraid to die,” she wrote.
