The youngest woman ever sentenced to death in the US remains on death row nearly three decades later. On January 12, 1995, then-18-year-old Christa Pike from Tennessee lured her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, to a secluded spot and k!lled her. Pike believed Colleen was trying to ‘steal’ her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. Along with Shadolla Peterson, the trio left their dormitory and took Colleen into the woods.
Pike falsely claimed she wanted to make peace with Colleen by offering her cannab!s, but then, together with Shipp, attacked her while Peterson acted as a lookout. The court heard that Colleen was br*tally beaten, slashed, and a pentagram was carved into h*r chest before Pike ended her l!fe by striking her sk*ll with a chunk of asphalt. Disturbingly, Pike kept a piece of Colleen’s skull and showed it to classmates, leading to the arrest of Pike, Shipp, and Peterson.
Although Pike confessed to tortur!ng and k!lling Colleen, she claimed her intention was only to scare her. On March 22, 1996, Pike was found guilty of first-degree m*rder and conspiracy to commit m*rder, and she was sentenced to death by electrocut!on. Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 25 years, while Peterson, as a state witness, was given a six-year probationary sentence. Pike became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the US, yet she remains on death row nearly 30 years later.
The protracted process is due to lengthy legal procedures related to carrying out executions. Death row inmates often spend years filing appeals and challenging their sentences. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, many prisoners in the US spend over 10 years on death row before execut!on or being declared not guilty. Since 2013, over half of exonerated death row inmates spent more than 25 years awaiting execut!on before clearing their names. More than half of US death row prisoners have been there for at least 18 years.
Pike has repeatedly appealed her verdict, canceled, and reissued her appeal, while legal representatives have attempted to have her sentence commuted. She was once scheduled for execut!on on August 19, 2002, but continued her appeal a month before. While in prison in 2001, Pike attempted to m*rder fellow inmate Patricia Jones by str*ngling her with string and was conv!cted of attempted m*rder in 2004. In 2012, a plan to break her out of prison was uncovered, involving Donald Kohut, a pen pal, and corrections officer Justin Heflin. Kohut was sentenced to seven years, and Heflin was fired, but Pike was not charged due to unclear involvement.