A woman due to be executed on Wednesday for a murder committed when she was a teenager has drawn parallels between her case and that of Lindsay Clancy.
Christa Pike was 18 when she lured fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer to a secluded area of the University of Tennessee campus, where she took part in a brutal attack that ended with Slemmer being fatally beaten on January 12, 1995.
Pike was convicted the following year, becoming the youngest woman sentenced to death in the United States. If carried out, her execution will make her the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
As she awaits execution, Pike said she feels a “kinship” with Clancy, whose mental health became a central issue after a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial earlier this month.
Clancy faced a potential life sentence for killing her children—five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson and eight-month-old Callan. She did not deny strangling them, but argued that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
“We are both females who got into trouble because of uniquely female issues,” Pike told The Times.
“One thing that is different, however, is that awareness of women’s issues has changed dramatically since I was put on trial.”
Pike said she was “pleased” that Clancy was “getting the help she needs,” adding: “There are so many women who don’t get the help they need—me and others.”
Christa Pike, now 50, said she feels a “kinship” with Lindsay Clancy
Clancy’s fate remains uncertain after a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial
Asked whether jurors might have been more sympathetic if she had faced trial today, Pike said she believed they would have been, “because science about brain development has evolved.”
She also maintained that her punishment was harsher than it should have been because her co-defendant in Slemmer’s murder was Black.
“While racism has not gone away, it has diminished some,” Pike said. “I think I was more harshly judged because of my relationship with Tadaryl.”
Pike had become convinced that Slemmer was trying to take her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. The two Job Corps students shared an interest in satanic imagery, although Slemmer’s friends denied that there had been a romantic rivalry.
Pike and another student, Shadolla Peterson, devised a plan to lure Slemmer away from the school. They told her they wanted to resolve their differences and offered to share marijuana with her in an isolated area near the University of Tennessee campus.
Slemmer went with Pike, Shipp and Peterson that evening. Once the group reached the woods, they attacked her.
Prosecutors said Slemmer was beaten, kicked and cut for at least half an hour as she pleaded with her attackers to stop and repeatedly tried to flee.
During the assault, Shipp carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest while she was still alive.
Slemmer eventually died after Pike struck her repeatedly in the head with a piece of asphalt.
Pike was 18 when she lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer (above) to her death in January 1995 in a horrifying attack that lasted more than an hour
Pike brutally attacked Slemmer with her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and friend Shadolla Peterson
Pike later returned to the Job Corps center with a fragment of Slemmer’s skull, which she showed to other students while describing what had happened.
Slemmer was found dead the next morning, naked from the waist up, her blood-soaked clothes hanging on branches above her.
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Pike was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder and conspiracy in March 1996.
At sentencing, jurors found that Colleen’s murder was especially cruel and involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond what was necessary to kill her. They sentenced Pike to death.
Pike’s attorneys asked Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to grant her clemency and commute her sentence to life without parole, citing her history of childhood sexual abuse and mental illness – which were not brought up during her initial trial as mitigating factors.
According to the petition, Pike was sexually abused by her grandmother’s boyfriend from the ages of two to five. At 11, she was raped by a 37-year-old neighbor who received only a suspended sentence and continued living nearby.
Then, at 17 – almost exactly a year before Colleen’s murder – Pike reported being dragged into the woods and raped by a stranger while walking to a store. A rape kit was performed, but the attacker was never identified.
Her attorneys also claim she endured physical abuse at home, attempted suicide several times as a child, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD after reaching death row.
In 1996, Pike became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the United States
By not including those diagnoses at her trial, Pike’s attorneys argue jurors were deprived of crucial context about the teenager they were sentencing.
‘Christa was broken, not evil,’ her attorneys argued in the petition. ‘She was broken by the people and places that were meant to be safe and supportive.
‘She was broken by a mental health system, juvenile system, and a criminal justice system that ignored, misdiagnosed, and mistreated her at every turn.’
Governor Lee denied clemency for Pike on Monday, keeping her on track to be executed.
At the same time, Pike’s attorneys have asked for an all-female team to carry out her lethal injection, arguing that being restrained and handled by men could retraumatize her because of past sexual abuse.
If that request is denied, she has asked to be hanged instead.
Clancy, 36, is scheduled to return to Plymouth County Superior Court on Tuesday for the first time since her trial ended
The mother-of-three did not deny that she strangled her children to death, but argued she was suffering from post-partum psychosis at the time
Meanwhile, Clancy, 36, is scheduled to return to Plymouth County Superior Court on Tuesday for the first time since her trial ended for a hearing that will shape the future of her case.
The status hearing could very well set the wheels in motion for a second trial for the killings of her three children – or it could end her criminal case once and for all.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington will argue several motions to strike down the state’s ability to retry the mom-of-three, including one calling for a finding of not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility and one seeking to dismiss all charges citing double jeopardy rules.
The defense is also fighting for information about the one holdout juror, including his cell phone records, surveillance footage from the courthouse and access to his juror questionnaire.
Prosecutors could also reveal their own plans of whether they will try Clancy a second time and, if yes, on the same or lesser charges.
If Judge William Sullivan sides with the defense to dismiss the case or find her not guilty, Clancy’s case could be tossed entirely.
If he denies them, and the state decides to retry the case, a second trial date could be set.
