Governor permits Christa Pike execution: 'I am upholding the sentence'

Gov. Bill Lee does not plan to stop Christa Pike's execution. Pike, 50, is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection 10 a.m. Sept. 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. “After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of t

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Gov. Bill Lee does not plan to stop Christa Pike's execution.

Pike, 50, is scheduled to be killed by lethal injection 10 a.m. Sept. 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

“After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene," Lee said in a statement released Sept. 28.

Pike has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop her execution. That case is pending.

Pike was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville.

Slemmer was 19 at her death. Pike was 18, the youngest age at which someone can be sentenced to death. She is set to be the first person put

to death in Tennessee for a crime committed at age 18 since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Governor permits Christa Pike execution: 'I am upholding the sentence'