"Two Christas," The Science of Guilt — Medical Debate on Tennessee's Historic Execution | Explained

In a 6-3 decision, the US Supreme Court cleared the way for Tennessee to carry out its first execution of a woman in 200 years on Wednesday, September 30.

The Tennessee Department of Corrections said in a statement to Reuters that it plans to “move forward with the execution today (Sept. 30).

The state will administer a lethal injection to 50-year-old Christa Pike at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, making her the only person in the modern era of the US death penalty to be executed in Tennessee for a crime committed as a teenager.

At the heart of the final legal battles leading up to the execution was a deep philosophical and psychological debate about guilt: Is the state executing the same person who committed a crime three decades ago?

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18 year old offender

The crime for which Pike was sentenced to death occurred in January 1995. At age 18, Pike, along with his 17-year-old friend Tadaryl Shipp and 18-year-old patrolman Shadolla Peterson, lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to a wooded area near their Knoxville Job Corps vocational center.

Pike saw Slemmer as a rival for Shipp’s affections and participated in torturing and killing her classmate. The killing was exceptionally gruesome; Court testimony revealed that the perpetrators carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest and took a piece of her skull as a souvenir.

While Shipp received life and Peterson probation, Pike was sentenced to death. Her violent record did not end immediately after her incarceration; in August 2001, she was convicted of attempted first-degree murder for assaulting another inmate.

The science of guilt

Decades later, Pike’s defense team put together a 226-page petition for clemency, arguing that the teenage killer was the product of severe, combined trauma and impaired brain development.

The petition, which was ultimately rejected by Governor Bill Lee, documented a childhood defined by violence, neglect and sexual abuse, including two rapes at the ages of 11 and 17.

In addition, her lawyers pointed to evidence that Pike’s mother drank heavily during her pregnancy. They argued that this contributed to faulty brain development, making it incredibly difficult for young Pike to control his impulses.

While in prison, she was formally diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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A 50-year-old prisoner

According to her legal team, three decades of aging and mental health treatment have fundamentally changed her identity, creating a stark divide between offender and current inmate.

“An 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists,” her lawyers said after the pardon was rejected.

They argued that the present-day Pike is “a 50-year-old repentant woman who understands her actions, receives proper treatment for her mental illness, and cares for and guides other incarcerated women”.

Final verdict

The argument surrounding her childhood trauma temporarily convinced a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which voted 2-1 in favor of a short stay, to consider whether evidence of her abuse was properly considered in sentencing.

But the Tennessee attorney general’s office immediately pushed back, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the stay. The high court’s conservative majority sided with the state and closed the door on Pike’s appeal.

For the victim’s family, time and psychological development have not changed the demand for retribution. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, publicly supported the execution.

In the end, the court system decided that despite the science of brain development and three decades of time, culpability for the 1995 massacre remains absolute.

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Historic execution — 1st woman in 200 years

Executions of female prisoners are extremely rare in the United States, with women accounting for only 18 of the 1,683 people put to death since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Tennessee had executed 17 people before Wednesday.