Tennessee set to execute a woman for the first time in two centuries

Key Points:

• Christa Pike, convicted of a 1995 murder committed as a teenager, is set to be executed by lethal injection in Tennessee, becoming the first woman executed in the state in over 200 years and the only person executed for a crime committed as a teenager in Tennessee's modern capital punishment era.
• Pike's clemency petition, which highlighted her traumatic childhood, sexual abuse, mental health diagnoses, and impaired brain development, was denied by Governor Bill Lee; the US Supreme Court also rejected a last-minute stay of execution.
• Pike was convicted for the brutal murder of her classmate Colleen Slemmer, involving torture and mutilation, with Pike and her boyfriend confessing to the crime; Pike was sentenced to death while her boyfriend received life with parole eligibility.
• The case has drawn international attention, including calls from UN human rights experts and trauma specialists for commutation, citing the cruelty of lethal injection potentially triggering severe traumatic flashbacks related to Pike's history of sexual abuse.
• Executions of women in the US are rare, with only 18 women executed since 1976, and Tennessee has executed 17 people in total before Pike; her case has also raised concerns following recent failed lethal injection attempts in Tennessee prisons.