A woman convicted of killing a classmate in 1995 at the age of 18 has requested a stay of execution from the Supreme Court, facing Tennessee’s first female execution in two centuries. The case stems from a fatal confrontation involving jealousy, with prosecutors alleging the defendant and her boyfriend lured their victim to a remote location where she was tortured before being killed. Now 50, the defendant remains on death row after a trial that marked her as one of the youngest women ever sentenced to capital punishment. Legal proceedings now hinge on whether higher authorities will intervene before the scheduled execution.
Lawyers for Christa Pike, 50, convicted of killing classmate in Knoxville in 1995, ask supreme court to grant stayChrista Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday in what would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in 200 years.Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer. Continue reading...
