USA: Execution of Christa Pike planned in Tennessee

This morning (local time), Christa Pike (50), who was sentenced to death in the USA, is to be executed in Nashville, Tennessee. The 50-year-old was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder of a then 19-year-old acquaintance. She was 18 years old at the time of the crime. It would be the first execution of a woman in the US state in more than 200 years.

Several campaigns tried until the end to stop the planned execution. The human rights organization Amnesty International emphasized that the convict suffered rape, sexual and physical violence, abuse and neglect in her childhood. UN experts are also calling for a stop to the execution.

Request for clemency rejected

Pike's lawyers submitted a 226-page clemency petition to the state government in early September. However, Republican Governor Bill Lee rejected this on Monday. After careful consideration, he confirmed the verdict of the state of Tennessee and has no intention of intervening, media quoted Lee as saying.

In rare cases, the Supreme Court can stop planned executions shortly before they are carried out. In 2014, for example, the US Supreme Court halted the execution of Russell Bucklew just an hour before it was to take place. At the time, however, the court's concerns stemmed from the method of execution. Bucklew was executed in 2019.

Victim's mother outraged

The mother of the 19-year-old who was murdered at the time told the New York Times that she was outraged by the attention that Pike was now receiving before the execution. “No one could ever, ever convince me that she has changed,” the newspaper quoted the woman as saying. Even in solitary confinement, Pike had access to comfort and support that her daughter was denied.

"I don't think someone should kill me to teach me that it's wrong to kill someone," the New York Times quoted the convicted Pike as saying. “I go through this execution in my heart every day,” she said in an audio recording that her lawyers provided to the newspaper.

Victims tortured and killed

In 1995, three teenagers tortured and killed the victim in a remote area near the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. According to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, Pike is the only one of the three to be sentenced to death. Her boyfriend at the time was 17 years old at the time of the crime and received a life sentence. Another 18-year-old was sentenced to probation.