Hours before her execution.. An unusual request from an American prisoner
Agencies2 min read
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Two days before her scheduled execution in the American state of Tennessee, Krista Pike requests that a team of women carry out the sentence against her, based on a history of sexual abuse she suffered in her childhood. If the execution proceeds on September 30, she will become the first woman to be executed by the state in over 200 years.
Pike is 50 years old, the only woman sentenced to death in Tennessee. According to her lawyers, the presence of men in the team that will restrain her and administer the lethal injection may bring back trauma related to her abuse.
The defense also raised concerns about the impact of her health condition on the execution.
The defense proposed hanging as an alternative to lethal injection in their appeal against the method of execution. However, Tennessee officials said the state is not equipped for this procedure and it is not approved there.
The court denies a stay of execution
On September 23, the Tennessee Supreme Court denied a stay of Pike's execution, after considering her objections to the method of lethal injection.
Her lawyers announced that they will continue legal efforts, alongside a request to the state governor, Bill Lee, to commute the sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
The case dates back to 1995, when Pike killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. The two were part of a vocational training program known as 'Job Corps'.
Pike was convicted of the crime she committed when she was 18 years old and was sentenced to death.
Pike's lawyers say the court did not give sufficient weight to her childhood abuse and neglect, nor to her psychological problems, when determining the sentence.
They assert that these circumstances do not justify Slemmer's murder, but they base their request for a reduced sentence on them.
Tennessee authorities have set September 30 for the execution in a Nashville prison. If the sentence is carried out, it will be the first execution of a woman in the state since 1819.
