Tennessee set for historic first female execution in 200 years

Tennessee is set to execute a woman for the first time in more than 200 years after Governor Bill Lee rejected a request for clemency.

According to The Telegraph, Christa Pike, 50, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer.

Pike was 18 when prosecutors said she and her boyfriend lured Slemmer to a secluded location, where she was tortured and killed. Pike does not deny responsibility for the killing.

Her lawyers argue that the death sentence is inappropriate because Pike was a teenager with untreated mental illness and had experienced sexual abuse and neglect during childhood.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, supports the execution, saying her daughter never had an opportunity to grow up.

“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” Martinez said.

Pike’s attorneys have asked the US Supreme Court to halt Wednesday’s scheduled execution.