US Supreme Court Refuses Christa Pike's Final Execution Appeal

The US Supreme Court has dismissed Christa Pike's ultimate appeal, clearing a major procedural hurdle for her execution in Tennessee. Pike, 47, has been incarcerated on death row for 28 years following her conviction for the brutal 1995 murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, then aged 19.

Pike's legal team had sought to challenge her sentence, which was handed down in 1996, making her the only woman currently awaiting execution in Tennessee. The state's Attorney General's office had earlier requested that the Supreme Court decline to hear the case.

The murder occurred during Pike's enrolment in a Job Corps programme in Knoxville, Tennessee. Court records detail that Pike, along with accomplice Tadaryl Shipp, lured Slemmer to an isolated location in the Cherokee National Forest. There, Slemmer was subjected to torture and ultimately killed.

Shipp, also convicted of the murder, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 51 years. Another individual involved, Shadolla Peterson, who acted as a lookout, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to probation.