Heartbreaking reason Christa Pike has asked for all-female staff at her execution

Warning: This article contains discussion of rape which some readers may find distressing.

Christa Pike is facing the final weeks of her nearly 30-year stay on death row - but her lawyers have made one deeply personal request about who'll be in the room if her execution goes ahead.

The 50-year-old is scheduled to be put to death via lethal injection in Tennessee on 30 September, in a case which has attracted renewed attention because of both the brutal crime she committed at 18, and the traumatic childhood she says triggered it.

According to her legal team's clemency petition, West Virginia-born Pike experienced a childhood marked by neglect, instability and abuse. She has previously said she was sexually assaulted as a child, including being raped at 11, before being raped again by a stranger when she was 17.

She ran away from home, struggled at school and spent time in a juvenile facility before eventually earning her GED.

Pike committed her crime at 18 (Cornell Law School)

What did Christa Pike do?

At 18, Pike enrolled at the Job Corps centre in Knoxville, Tennessee, hoping to train as a nursing assistant, where she met Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17.

On 12 January 1995, the couple, along with their friend Shadolla Peterson, lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer - whom Pike was convinced was attempting to steal Shipp from her - to an isolated area near the University of Tennessee's Agricultural campus.

Court testimony described a prolonged assault on Slemmer by the trio, which lasted around 30 minutes.

The victim was beaten and stabbed, with Pike allegedly having carved a pentagram into her chest and keeping a part of her skull.

Pike, Shipp and Peterson all received very different sentences (WBIR/NBC)

The three teenagers were eventually arrested, with Pike later confessing to the killing, insisting however, that she'd intended to scare Slemmer but that the situation had spiralled out of control.

Why was she sentenced to death?

Peterson testified against Pike and Shipp and received probation.

Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole, being that he was 17 at the time of the murder.

Pike, meanwhile, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to death, becoming the youngest woman in modern US history to be handed capital punishment.

Slemmer had been a student at the Job Corps, alongside Pike (First Coast News/ABC)

At present, her execution remains scheduled for 30 September 2026 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Now, however, her legal team has asked that only female corrections staff be present in the death chamber.

Why does Pike only want women present at her execution?

According to The Guardian, the reason for the request is tied to Pike's history of sexual abuse, much of which, her lawyers argue, was never presented to the jury that decided she should receive the death penalty.

Her lawyers say she is terrified that the experience of being restrained on an execution gurney, with staff handling her body and attempting to establish an IV, could trigger memories of the abuse she experienced as a child.

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

And with the state yet to guarantee that her request will be honoured, the convicted killer faces the possibility of being restrained and handled by men in her final moments.

A 226-page clemency petition submitted to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in September asked for Pike's death sentence to be commuted to life without parole, however, placing significant emphasis on her childhood and mental health.

Her lawyers argue that the abuse she endured resulted in her later being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Crucially, they say the jury deciding whether Pike should live or die never heard the full extent of the abuse she had experienced, with lawyer Kelleigh Gleason, telling the publication: "None of the rapes, none of the sexual abuse as a child, were introduced."

Pike has requested all female executioners (Jerry Cabluck/Sygma via Getty Images)

Failing their plea, her team have also challenged Tennessee's lethal-injection protocol, raising concerns about the potential for pain and suffering given Pike's medical and psychological circumstances.

That challenge has so far failed to overturn her execution date, although further legal avenues remain open.

For now, Pike remains on death row, waiting to find out whether the sentence that has followed her for almost three decades will finally be carried out.

And if it is, her lawyers are hoping that, at the very least, the people surrounding her in those final moments will be women.