First woman to be executed in 200 years in US state begged court to reconsider death sentence

After the date for her long-awaited execution was finally set last week, a plea that convicted killer Christa Gail Pike once made to the court has been unearthed by followers of her case.

For those unfamiliar with the 49-year-old's heinous crimes - as well as her record-breaking death row journey - Pike was convicted in 1996 of the violent murder of one of her classmates, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

The year prior, troubled West Virginia youngster Pike had simultaneously taken an interest in devil worship, and become embroiled in a toxic relationship with a local boy named Tadaryl Shipp.

Convinced Slemmer was attempting to 'steal' Shipp from her while the trio were enrolled at a Job Corps centre based in Knoxville, Tennessee, she recruited the help of another friend, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, to murder the teen.

Christa Pike during her trial (WBIR Channel 10)

Pike, Shipp and Peterson lured Slemmer to an abandoned steam plant, close to University of Tennessee’s Agricultural campus, where the couple tortured her for as long as 30 minutes. Peterson, meanwhile, kept a lookout.

Pike eventually ended Slemmer's agony by smashing her head in using a large chunk of asphalt.

After going on the show off a piece of skull she'd kept from the attack around school, the vicious murderer was quickly arrested.

Peterson later made the decision to testify against the couple, with Shipp being convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison, and Pike sentenced to death by a Tennessee Supreme Court.

In the years since her conviction, Pike has attempted multiple times - on both state and federal levels - to secure freedom through appeals, the most recent being filed in 2023.

This instance saw Pike's team asking the state to reconsider how she was sentenced, claiming her age and mental health weren't taken into account 30 years ago.

Pike has been on death row in Tennessee for three decades (Tennessee Department of Correction)

Her lawyers event went as far as to argue that her brain wasn't fully developed at the time she murdered Slemmer.

"If a person's mental capacity is so limited as to be defined as intellectually disabled under the law, it is considered cruel and unusual punishment for the state to seek the death penalty against that person," criminal defence attorney Chloe Ackers told WBIR Channel 10 at the time.

More recently, Pike wrote a handwritten letter to local news outlet The Tennessean, attempting to plead her case all over again.

"Think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager," she wrote. "Well, mine happened to be huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives. I was a mentally ill 18 yr old kid.

"It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I'd done. Even more to accept how many lives I effected [sic]. I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend."

She continued: "It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime."

Pike will be executed next year (Getty Stock Image)

Despite their pleas, Pike's her execution date was set last week for 30 September 2026, with her death set to see Pike become the first woman to be executed in the state of Tennessee in over 200 years.

Before her, Martin Eve was the last female to be executed in the 'Volunteer State', having been hanged in 1820 for accessory to murder.

Adding to Pike's unnerving, record-breaking status, she'll also make history as the 19th woman in modern American history to be put to death for her crimes, as well as the youngest to face the death penalty since the Furman period.

This era, for reference, saw procedural safeguards put into place on death row in 1976, after executions were temporarily halted four years earlier due to their previous arbitrary application.