Before the state of Tennessee executes Christa Pike later this month for killing a fellow teenager in 1995, Pike's attorneys are highlighting her humanity in a plea to Gov. Bill Lee.
"Through this petition, Christa respectfully asks Governor Bill Lee to grant her clemency by commuting her sentence to life without the possibility of parole," a document filed with Lee's office Sept. 2 reads. "Christa can still be useful. Her story of growth from a traumatized teenager to a generous, empathetic woman has the power to help others choose a different path. It already has."
The petition for clemency, titled "Mercy for Christa: The Case for Life," includes a statement from Pike similar to what she said in a handwritten letter to The Tennessean in 2023.
"Think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager. Well, mine happened to be huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives," Pike's statement in the petition reads. "I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime."
Pike, 50, brutally tortured and killed fellow Knoxville Job Corps member Colleen Slemmer with two other young people in January 1995, repeatedly beating and cutting Slemmer with a knife. She kept a piece of Slemmer's skull.
Neither of the two other people involved in the crime, Shadolla Peterson and Pike's then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, were sentenced to death. Shipp, 17 at the time of the crime, remains behind bars but has a parole hearing in 2031, records show. Peterson testified against Pike and received a six-year probationary sentence.
Pike has looked for respite by various legal means for decades but has yet to succeed. Now, the clock is running out. She is scheduled to be killed by a lethal dose of the drug pentobarbital Sept. 30.
Lee has not intervened to stop an execution for any reason other than concerns over the execution process. Most recently, he called off Tony Carruthers' execution after the physician involved in the lethal injection was unable to set the needed IV lines.
The clemency petition now on Lee's desk synthesizes the arguments and factors in Pike's case that her attorneys have presented over the years. This includes the fact that Pike stands to be the youngest person at the time of their crime executed in Tennessee since at least 1961. The youngest person at the time of the crime since then was 23.
Most of the document focuses on Pike's mental illnesses, her victimhood as a child, including multiple rapes, abuse and lack of intervention by state agencies, and her emotional development while she has been incarcerated. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder while in prison.
In 2001, Pike choked a woman with a shoelace until she was incapacitated, according to court records and the petition, and she was convicted of attempted murder. However, that woman, Patricia Jones, was fighting another woman when Pike began to choke her. Jones said she "would have killed" the other woman and "would later admit that Christa did the right thing by pulling her away from her friend," according to the petition, which cites court records.
Two women who have been incarcerated with Pike, and the mother of a third woman, submitted videos describing the positive impact they say Pike had on them in prison.
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: Christa Pike pleads to Gov. Bill Lee for clemency before execution
