Judge refuses to overturn death penalty for youngest woman ever given the sentence in Tennessee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A federal judge has refused to overturn the death sentence for Christa Gail Pike, Tennessee’s lone female condemned prisoner.
In a written ruling issued on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. said Pike failed to show that her constitutional rights were violated during her 1996 trial when she was sentenced to death.
Pike was 18 years old when she tortured and murdered a fellow Job Corps student on the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus. Prosecutors said she killed Colleen Slemmer because the girl was a rival for her boyfriend’s affections. Pike kept Slemmer’s skull as souvenir.
Pike made headlines around the country in 2012 when authorities said a New Jersey man and a former prison guard plotted to bust her out of prison.
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