Arabic version: إعدام كريستا بايك يلوح في الأفق في تينيسي

According to BBC News, Christa Pike is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Tennessee on 30 September unless Governor Bill Lee grants clemency. Pike, 50, would be the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years if the execution goes ahead.

Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and murdered 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The pair had met Slemmer at a job training camp for troubled teenagers. Pike was sentenced to death a year later, while Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the murder, received life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

Her lawyers have submitted a 226-page clemency petition, citing a documented history of childhood sexual abuse, abandonment and neglect, as well as later diagnoses of bipolar disorder and PTSD. They argue that evidence about her background was not fully presented to the jury. A federal appeals court ruled that the jury had heard about her difficult childhood and that newer evidence would not have changed the verdict.

The Tennessee Supreme Court denied Pike’s request to halt the execution this week. Her counsel said they were discussing next steps. Pike has requested an all-female team on the day of her execution, saying that being held down by men would worsen her trauma. Tennessee said female guards were expected to transfer her to the prison where she would be executed, but did not guarantee the arrangement.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, supports the execution and told the BBC she still stands by earlier comments that Pike should pay for the crime. Victims’ rights group the Justice Coalition has raised money to help Martinez travel to Tennessee. Pike’s friend Ashlee Sellars said she believes Slemmer’s life mattered while also arguing that Pike deserves a chance at redemption.