The Tennessee Supreme Court is not stopping Christa Pike's upcoming execution.
Pike, 50, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. She was convicted of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville when Pike was 18.
Pike's lawyers plan to press on with the case while awaiting a decision on clemency from Gov. Bill Lee.
The Tennessee high court was reviewing a special master's determination that Pike's attorneys failed to prove the state's method of killing Pike will cause her needless suffering. The court released a 23-page ruling on Sept. 23, concluding that Pike is unlikely to succeed on any of her challenges to the lethal injection protocol.
Pike's attorneys plan to appeal to the
U.S. Supreme Court, Stephen Ferrell from the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee and Kelly Gleason from the Tennessee Office of the Post-Conviction Defender said in a statement.
"Christa was just 18 years old at the time of the crime, had endured a childhood of horrific rape, sexual and physical abuse, suffered from serious undiagnosed mental illness, and was sentenced before we understood what we know today about adolescent brain development and the profound effects of childhood trauma," the attorneys wrote.
Pike's lawyers submitted a clemency petition to Lee in early September.
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: Tennessee Supreme Court declines to stop Christa Pike's execution
