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Tennessee Killer Christa Pike Spared From Execution by Federal Appeals Court Stay
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a last-minute stay Wednesday, halting the scheduled execution of Christa Pike, who would have become the first woman executed in Tennessee since the early 1800s. The state has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Convicted Tennessee killer Christa Pike was spared from becoming the first woman executed in the state in more than two centuries after a federal appeals court issued a stay Wednesday morning, just as her execution was set to proceed. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to halt the execution «until further notice» while it considers motions filed by Pike's attorneys and the Tennessee Attorney General's Office. The state immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to have the stay lifted.
Pike, 50, was 18 in 1995 when she, her boyfriend and another accomplice beat, kicked and stabbed their 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer to death in what court documents describe as a brutal «satanic» attack. Pike later claimed the killing took between 30 minutes and an hour. She and Slemmer knew each other through a vocational program in Knoxville called the Job Corps Center.
According to court records, Pike had accused Slemmer of «trying to get [her] boyfriend» and «running her mouth.» A day before the killing, she told another classmate she wanted to kill Slemmer because she «just felt mean that day.» Pike was armed with a box cutter and a meat cleaver. She and her accomplices lured Slemmer out by telling her they wanted to go to a music store and pick up some marijuana they had hidden in a park nearby.
Pike attacked Slemmer, knocked her to the ground and struck her in the face with her knee and foot, according to court documents. At one point, Slemmer broke away and tried to flee, but Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, grabbed her and held her down while Pike slashed her with the box cutter. The victim begged for her life, but the attackers continued. At some point, they gagged her with a hair tie. Shipp also carved pentagrams into the victim's face and chest.
At trial, forensic psychiatrist Dr. William Bernet testified that the crime had «satanic elements» but also appeared to involve «the phenomenon of collective aggression, in which a group of people become emotionally aroused and 'the end result is that they engage in some kind of violent, extremely violent activity.'» Dr. Eric Engum testified that Pike had been diagnosed with «very severe borderline personality disorder» in addition to showing signs of cannabis dependence and depression. However, he said, she had no symptoms of brain damage or insanity.
Pike took a piece of the victim's crushed skull as a trophy and later showed it off at school, recounting that Slemmer had begged the trio to stop, according to court records. Pike told a friend she had cut Slemmer's throat a half-dozen times and then smashed her head with a rock. She showed off her bloodstained sneakers to another classmate and brought Slemmer's skull fragment to breakfast the next morning.
Neither Shipp nor the third attacker, Shadolla Peterson, received death sentences. Shipp was under 18 at the time and not eligible for capital punishment. Peterson testified for the state.
Pike's supporters counter that her defense did a poor job presenting mitigating factors before her sentencing, including untreated bipolar disorder and PTSD stemming from repeated domestic violence and sexual assaults. Just under 25,000 people had signed a petition to Gov. Bill Lee asking him to commute her death sentence to life in prison.
The stay is temporary. The Sixth Circuit's decision means Pike will not be executed while the court weighs the pending motions, but the state's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court could result in the stay being lifted. If the execution proceeds, Pike would become the first woman executed in Tennessee since the early 1800s.
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