Christa Pike during her trial

Christa Pike’s legal team has made a final request as they fight to prevent her scheduled execution in Tennessee, where she has spent almost three decades on death row.

Pike, 50, was convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995 and sentenced to death the following year. If the execution proceeds on September 30, she would become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.

Lawyers seek mercy as execution date looms

Pike’s lawyers have petitioned Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole, arguing that she has changed since the crime and could still help others.

The petition describes her transformation from a traumatised teenager into an empathetic woman and asks the governor to recognise her potential contribution. No response from Lee has been recorded.

Her lawyers have also challenged the planned lethal injection, arguing that a medical condition could make the procedure exceptionally painful. Reprieve US deputy director Matt Wells has warned it could result in a “prolonged and agonising death”, although Senior Judge Mark Ward ruled the condition would not prevent medical staff establishing an IV.

Pike asks for women-only execution team

Pike’s latest request concerns who would be present in the death chamber. According to the Guardian, her team wants only female corrections staff involved, citing her alleged history of sexual abuse by men and her fear of being restrained by male officers.

The case has also become the focus of a documentary examining Pike’s final days at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

“My nerves are shredded”

Pike has described the psychological strain of living with an execution date after years believing one might never be set.

She said the date had left her mind constantly consumed by the prospect of death, describing waking each day with the thought hanging over her.

With the September 30 deadline approaching, her legal team is pursuing every remaining avenue to stop the execution, while the clemency decision now rests with Tennessee’s governor.

Reason why first woman to be executed in US state for 200 years asked for all-female execution squad

No need to wait 200 years to see a woman executed in Tennessee.

Instead, just visit TEXAS.

The last woman executed in Texas was Lisa Coleman, who received a lethal injection on September 17, 2014. [1]

Key Details

• Crime: She was convicted for the 2004 torture, starvation, and murder of her girlfriend's 9-year-old son, Davontae Williams.

• Location: The execution took place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

• Context: She was the sixth woman executed in Texas since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976. [1, 2, 3]

I, too, would prefer an ALL-FEMALE execution squad if I found it necessary to have myself put to death......

Why?

Just because, then they would say.....

He died happy.

Due to the kiss of death.

But, if I were really to be executed then....

With an entire female execution squad.....

I would have MANY kisses of death...

Probably all around my neck.

“My nerves are shredded” they weren't shredded when she committed the crime.

What a bizarre concept the American interpretation of the death penalty is - 50 years!

It is marked by extreme cruelty.

The crime was terrible.

I do not believe in capital punishment, but if it is to be carried out it should be done relatively swiftly.

50 years on "death row" is just psychological torture.

describing waking each day with the thought hanging over her. Hanging her would have been more suitable,

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22 minutes ago, JAG said:

50 years on "death row" is just psychological torture.

Christa Pike is 50 years old. She has spent 30 years on death row. A man executed last year in Mississippi had spent 49 years on death row, which is believed to be the record.

Living in a death row cell is a miserable form of existence. It drives some prisoners crazy. Execution is probably a better option.

35 minutes ago, JAG said:

What a bizarre concept the American interpretation of the death penalty is - 50 years!

It is marked by extreme cruelty.

The crime was terrible.

I do not believe in capital punishment, but if it is to be carried out it should be done relatively swiftly.

50 years on "death row" is just psychological torture.

Boo hoo.

Its quite easy to go through life without committing first degree murder.