Tennessee clears way for first execution of a woman in 200 years

Tennessee governor Bill Lee has refused to intervene in the execution of Christa Pike, the state’s only female death row inmate, clearing the way for the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Lee announced on Monday that he had upheld Pike’s death sentence and did not plan to intervene in her execution by lethal injection, set for 30 September, USA Today reports. “After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee,” he said. The execution is set for 10am on Wednesday at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, the Tennessean reports.

Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for the torture and murder of her romantic rival, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, on 12 January 1995 in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time, making her one of the youngest women ever sent to death row; her boyfriend, then 17, received a life sentence because he was not eligible for the death penalty.

Lee’s decision came after pleas from Pike’s lawyers and more than 100 women’s advocacy groups and sex abuse experts, who argued that her childhood of repeated rapes and sexual abuse meant the execution would re-traumatise her and amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The Tennessee Supreme Court rejected those arguments, as did a court-appointed special master, Senior Judge Mark Ward, who concluded that mental suffering alone was not enough to violate the constitution’s protections.

Pike’s attorneys asked the US Supreme Court to stay the execution on 25 September; Tennessee filed its response on Monday, making the court her last hope. Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has said she wants the execution to proceed and plans to attend.