The request comes after the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that juveniles are constitutionally different than adults when it comes to sentencing them for crimes.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Attorneys are asking the court to reconsider a woman’s death sentence, in lieu of a new Tennessee Supreme Court ruling that juveniles are “constitutionally different than adults” when it comes to sentencing them for crimes.
In 1996, Christa Gail Pike was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Collen Slemmer on the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus. She is now 45 years old, but she was 18 years old when she committed the crime.
Her attorneys filed a motion to reopen her petition for post-conviction relief on Wednesday. They cited numerous state and federal court opinions—including State vs. Booker, which happened in 2022.
Pike’s attorneys say her childhood was marked by “severe, repeated physical and sexual abuse, rapes, and violence from a very young age.”
RELATED: Victim’s mom asks for Christa Pike’s execution date to be set
“If Christa is executed for a crime she committed as a teenager, it will contradict Tennessee’s deeply held beliefs in the value of human life and redemption, as well as the scientific consensus that youthful brains are not fully formed, especially for young people who experience severe abuse, neglect and trauma,” said attorney Kelly Gleason. “It will demonstrate the cruel reality of Tennessee’s arbitrary death scheme.”
Pike, her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and their friend, Shadolla Peterson, plotted to lure Slemmer out with the promise of smoking marijuana. Pike and Shipp then tortured and beat Slemmer. They cut a pentagram in her chest. Pike bashed Slemmer’s skull with a chunk of asphalt.
RELATED: The Job Corps killing: Passage of time can’t erase Christa Gail Pike’s savage crime
Since her sentencing, Pike tried to kill a fellow inmate and escape jail.
An execution date hasn’t been set for Pike.
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