She ran away from home, struggled at school and spent time in a juvenile facility before eventually earning her GED.
What did Christa Pike do?
At 18, Pike enrolled at the Job Corps centre in Knoxville, Tennessee, hoping to train as a nursing assistant, where she met Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17.
On 12 January 1995, the couple, along with their friend Shadolla Peterson, lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer – whom Pike was convinced was attempting to steal Shipp from her – to an isolated area near the University of Tennessee’s Agricultural campus.
Court testimony described a prolonged assault on Slemmer by the trio, which lasted around 30 minutes.
The victim was beaten and stabbed, with Pike allegedly having carved a pentagram into her chest and keeping a part of her skull.
The three teenagers were eventually arrested, with Pike later confessing to the killing, insisting however, that she’d intended to scare Slemmer but that the situation had spiralled out of control.
Why does Pike only want women present at her execution?
According to The Guardian, the reason for the request is tied to Pike’s history of sexual abuse, much of which, her lawyers argue, was never presented to the jury that decided she should receive the death penalty.
Her lawyers say she is terrified that the experience of being restrained on an execution gurney, with staff handling her body and attempting to establish an IV, could trigger memories of the abuse she experienced as a child.
And with the state yet to guarantee that her request will be honoured, the convicted killer faces the possibility of being restrained and handled by men in her final moments.
Why was Pike sentenced to death but not her co-defendants?
Peterson testified against Pike and Shipp and received probation.
Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole, being that he was 17 at the time of the murder.
Pike, meanwhile, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to death, becoming the youngest woman in modern US history to be handed capital punishment.
At present, her execution remains scheduled for 30 September 2026 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
A 226-page clemency petition submitted to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in September asked for Pike’s death sentence to be commuted to life without parole, however, placing significant emphasis on her childhood and mental health.
Her lawyers argue that the abuse she endured resulted in her later being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Crucially, they say the jury deciding whether Pike should live or die never heard the full extent of the abuse she had experienced, with lawyer Kelleigh Gleason, telling the publication: “None of the rapes, none of the sexual abuse as a child, were introduced.”
Failing their plea, her team have also challenged Tennessee’s lethal-injection protocol, raising concerns about the potential for pain and suffering given Pike’s medical and psychological circumstances.
That challenge has so far failed to overturn her execution date, although further legal avenues remain open.
For now, Pike remains on death row, waiting to find out whether the sentence that has followed her for almost three decades will finally be carried out.
And if it is, her lawyers are hoping that, at the very least, the people surrounding her in those final moments will be women.