How Young Is Too Young For A Death Sentence? Christa Pike Fights Move To Set Execution Date

[Sugar Cookie]

What's the difference between being 17 years old and being 18? In Christa Gail Pike's case, her lawyers say, the difference is a death sentence.

The state wants to set an execution date for Pike, now 45 and the only woman on Tennessee's death row. She was 18 years old when she and two other participants in a Knoxville job program for troubled teens killed Colleen Slemmer in a remote spot on the University of Tennessee's agriculture campus.

Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and fellow Job Corps student Shadolla Peterson lured Slemmer, 19, to campus the night of Jan. 12, 1995. Once the three had Slemmer in an isolated spot, they physically assaulted her before bludgeoning her to death with a rock.

Investigators said a love triangle between Pike, Shipp and Slemmer was the motive for the crime.

Only Pike received a death sentence for her role in the killing. Peterson cooperated with investigators and walked away with probation. Shipp was 17 — too young to be put to death. He's serving a life sentence and will be eligible for parole in 2028.

Pike's legal team cites that difference in a new court filing asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to delay her execution — or recommend it be stopped altogether.

"Mr. Shipp was 17 years old at the time of Ms. Slemmer’s death. Christa Pike was 18. That is the difference between a death sentence and parole eligibility in 2028," reads the filing signed by defense attorneys Stephen Ferrell and Kelly Gleason. "That difference cannot be equated with increased maturity or brain development. Christa was not more mature or more responsible than Mr. Shipp."

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office is asking the high court to set an execution date for Pike, contending she has exhausted her appeals. But Pike's defense team says it's still too soon. They've lodged several arguments, including one centered on her mental illness and youth at the time of the crime.

A jury condemned Pike in March 1996. Nine years later, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the juvenile death penalty in the landmark case Roper v. Simmons. The court held that executing people who committed murder before they turned 18 violates the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment because they "cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders."

Gov. Bill Lee could grant Pike clemency but has not done so for any other death-row inmate since he was inaugurated in January 2019.

Pike has had additional legal troubles while in prison. In 2004, she was convicted of attempted murder for nearly strangling a fellow inmate with a shoestring.

Pike would be the first woman Tennessee has executed in over 200 years, her attorneys say, and the first person it's put to death "in the modern era" who was a teenager at the time of the crime.

How young is too young for a death sentence? Christa Pike fights move to set execution date

The state of Tennessee says it's time to set an execution date for Pike. Her lawyers say 18 is too young for killers to get the death penalty.

www.tennessean.com

Colleen Slemmer

Tadaryl "The Dick" Shipp Now

Then

 

[cubby]

The fact that she's nearly murdered at least once since she killed Colleen, that should keep them from commuting her sentence to LWOP, I sincerely hope they don't release her. That would be a deadly mistake.

 

[Brillig]

I would be okay with commutation to LWOP because the vast difference between her sentence and the guys sentence does seem unjust based solely on a few months of difference in their ages. However, she's tried to kill someone else while in prison, so no parole, ever.

 

[Sejanus]

They all should get the chair.
Problem solved.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A Knox County judge has rejected a bid to vacate the death sentence of Christa Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee and the youngest American woman to be sentenced to death since 1972.

Pike and two others were convicted in the brutal 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer when all four teens were participating in Job Corps, a federal jobs training program for troubled adolescents, in Knoxville.

Pike, 18 at the time, became the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States since 1972. Tadaryl Shipp, 17 at the time, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole plus 25 years. Shadolla Peterson, 19, received probation after turning informant for the state’s case against Pike and Shipp.

Citing a recent landmark ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court in State v. Booker declaring mandatory life sentences for juveniles convicted of homicide a violation of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, attorneys for Pike filed a motion on August 30 requesting that her post-conviction proceeding be reopened to consider that the death sentence was unconstitutional.

The Booker ruling upheld that adolescence, mental illness, and childhood trauma can be factored in when determining a proportionate sentence for crimes committed by juveniles. Pike’s attorneys contended that the case should be reopened so that the abuse she suffered as a child and the mental illnesses she was diagnosed with later in life could be considered in sentencing.

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Scott Green denied the motion based on Pike’s age at the time of the crime, noting that the Booker ruling applied only to juveniles, not adults, convicted of first-degree murder.

“At the time of the crime nearly 30 years ago, Christa Pike was a teenager, just 18, with untreated severe mental illness and a history of severe, repeated physical and sexual abuse, violence, rape, and neglect that began when Christa was very young. Christa’s co-defendant, who was 17, will be eligible for parole soon. Yet Christa, who was just a few months older, may be executed. There is no difference in the brain of an 18 year old and a 17 year old. The trial court’s order refers to Christa as an adult, but brain science tells us she was a child. Christa’s death sentence is arbitrary and she should not be executed.”
Christa Pike’s Defense Team

Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819 and the first person executed who was 18 at the time of the crime in Tennessee since the death penalty was reinstituted.

On August 24, 2001, Pike strangled inmate Patricia Jones with a shoestring nearly choking her to death. She was convicted of attempted first-degree murder on August 12, 2004.

Court upholds sentence for only woman on death row in Tennessee

A Knox County judge has rejected a bid to vacate the death sentence of Christa Pike, the only woman on death row in Tennessee and the youngest American woman to be sentenced to death since 1972.

www.wkrn.com

Tadaryl "The Dick" Shipp will be eligible for parole in 2026.

 

[cubby]

He should be right next to her in the electric chair, he definitely shouldn't be released on parole. Soon he will be out and about, bored and looking for something to do, sure hope he doesn't lapse back into old behaviors.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

She is a monster, but should she be put to death?

Clemency | Christa Pike

Christa Pike is the only woman on Tennessee's death row for a crime she committed when she was an 18-year-old girl with untreated severe mental illness. If her execution proceeds, she will be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

www.mercyforchrista.org

 

[Ella Mayo]

Society has the responsibility to protect itself. Who could dispute that point? This young unfortunate, and many others, must be permanently contained. There is no perfect solution here.

Were I benevolent dictator, she would be sequestered from society for her natural life, but given every opportunity and resource necessary to contribute. She is clearly sane, bright, and contrite. She is truly a victim - but so are her victims.

She is a perfect illustration of why children must be protected and nurtured. Jeffrey Dahmers are not born; they are created. There are some among us who experience the worst, yet thrive in spite of that. Few of us are that strong. Everything that reduces the incidence of people like her is worthy of society's attention and effort. I say contain her, but allow her to contribute.

Maybe after decades of unblemished work, untainted by idealistic left-tard bromides about sainted victimhood of criminals but not victims, she may be let back out, with stern, unsentimental supervision. Today is not that time.

 

[sgr1966]

Society has the responsibility to protect itself. Who could dispute that point? This young unfortunate, and many others, must be permanently contained. There is no perfect solution here.

Were I benevolent dictator, she would be sequestered from society for her natural life, but given every opportunity and resource necessary to contribute. She is clearly sane, bright, and contrite. She is truly a victim - but so are her victims.

She is a perfect illustration of why children must be protected and nurtured. Jeffrey Dahmers are not born; they are created. There are some among us who experience the worst, yet thrive in spite of that. Few of us are that strong. Everything that reduces the incidence of people like her is worthy of society's attention and effort. I say contain her, but allow her to contribute.

Maybe after decades of unblemished work, untainted by idealistic left-tard bromides about sainted victimhood of criminals but not victims, she may be let back out, with stern, unsentimental supervision. Today is not that time.

I disagree.

 

[Ella Mayo]

I disagree.

With what? What is your position?

 

[Totemic]

Some people are just born evil. Others are a product of their social environment. I don't know if death penalty should be upheld in this, but she definitely should be incarcerated, especially with attempted murder on top of her conviction.

 

[thuumpr]

View attachment 57697

How young is too young for a death sentence? Christa Pike fights move to set execution date

The state of Tennessee says it's time to set an execution date for Pike. Her lawyers say 18 is too young for killers to get the death penalty.

www.tennessean.com

View attachment 57698Colleen SlemmerView attachment 57699
Tadaryl "The Dick" Shipp Now

View attachment 57700Then

The court held that executing people who committed murder before they turned 18 violates the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment because they "cannot with reliability be classified among the worst offenders."

How far does that bar slide?

 

[sgr1966]

With what? What is your position?

18 is old enough to know better.