On Tennessee’s death row, Christa Pike has spent most of her life waiting for this day,
Continue Reading »suspended between the horror of what she did and the wreckage of what was done to her.
At 18, she lured fellow student Colleen Slemmer to a secluded spot, where Slemmer was beaten, stabbed, and mutilated, a pentagram carved into her chest.
The cruelty of the crime shocked the state; Pike became its symbol of female monstrosity, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.
Yet behind that image lay a childhood shattered by sexual abuse, neglect, and repeated rape.
Her lawyers pleaded for mercy, arguing that executing a deeply traumatized woman with a serious medical condition was not justice but cruelty.
Court after court disagreed. Now 50, Pike has stopped fighting.
In her final message, she says she is not afraid to die, only of how it will feel.
The state is ready. The gurney is waiting. And there are no more appeals left.
