Death-row woman wants victim’s family to watch her die but makes one chilling demand

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: The family of a Tennessee teenager killed more than three decades ago could be inside the execution chamber when her convicted killer faces lethal injection.

But the woman on death row has made an unusual request of her own: if she is executed, she wants the team carrying it out to be made up entirely of women.

The request comes as 50-year-old Christa Pike makes a final effort to avoid the death penalty.

Her execution is scheduled for September 30 in Nashville and she could become the first woman Tennessee has executed in more than two centuries.

Pike wants victim's family inside

Pike was convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was also a student at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville.

Now, as Pike's own final moments approach, her lawyers have raised a question about who should be in the execution room.

They want only female corrections staff involved if Tennessee proceeds with the lethal injection.

The defense says that request is connected to the trauma Pike experienced as a child, much of it involving men.

The lawyers have argued that having male officers restrain or handle Pike during the procedure could aggravate trauma connected to her past.

At the same time, Pike wants Slemmer's family to have the opportunity to witness the execution.

The State of Tennessee has refused to guarantee an all-female team for the execution of Christa Pike.

Pike's lawyers have separately asked Gov. Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life without parole.

Their 226-page clemency petition points to her childhood and the trauma she experienced since the 1995 killing.

The defense has argued that Pike's history should be considered alongside the circumstances of the crime and her age at the time of the incident.

Colleen Slemmer killing in 1995

The case goes back to January 1995, when Pike and Slemmer were both at the Job Corps facility in Knoxville.

According to the Tennessee Court's account, Pike had told another student the day before the killing that she intended to kill Slemmer.

The following evening, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and another student left the center with Slemmer. Slemmer never returned.

A fellow student later testified that Pike came to her room and said she had killed Slemmer.

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy and received a death sentence.

Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life because he was below the age required for a death sentence.

Nearly 32 years later, Pike remains on Tennessee’s death row, making a last-ditch effort to stay alive.