Christa Gail Pike faces execution in Tennessee: “I’m not afraid to die,” but refuses to choose a last meal

Christa Gail Pike, 50, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Tennessee in a case that would make her the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years.

Pike was found guilty and sentenced to death for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was her friend at a vocational training center in Knoxville. The crime took place in 1995, when Pike was 18.

Prosecutors said Pike lured Slemmer to a wooded area, where she attacked her with a box cutter and a large piece of asphalt. Her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, also took part in the murder and later admitted that he had carved a pentagram into the victim’s body. Shipp was sentenced to life in prison, while Pike was the only one of them to receive the death penalty.

The woman has said that she has accepted her fate and is “at peace” with it. She has also said that she is not afraid of death, but is troubled by the way the execution will be carried out.

In a statement, Pike accepted responsibility for the murder, describing herself at the time as “an 18-year-old with mental health issues.” She has also recounted the severe sexual abuse she suffered during childhood.

Although death-row inmates in many U.S. states can request whatever food they want for their last meal, Pike chose not to request one.

May Martinez, Colleen Slemmer’s mother, said she had waited for decades for Pike’s sentence to be carried out. She and her husband traveled from Florida to be present as witnesses to the execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Pike’s lawyers’ request to stay the execution on Tuesday. Before that ruling, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee had denied her request for clemency.

The case attracted widespread attention during the 1990s, mainly because of the pentagram carved into Slemmer’s body. This detail fueled fears of satanic rituals during the period known in the United States as the “Satanic panic.”

Data cited in the report shows that, since executions resumed in the United States in 1976, 18 women have been executed. They account for about 1% of the total number of executions.