KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WOKI / WVLT) – As her scheduled execution approaches, Christa Gail Pike says she has found peace and gratitude despite facing death by lethal injection Wednesday morning.
In a letter written before Governor Bill Lee denied her clemency request, Pike thanked supporters who have rallied around her in recent weeks and said she no longer fears death.
“I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone who has supported me through these hard days,” Pike wrote. “I’ve felt more love in the last two weeks than I have my entire life.”
Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and was convicted in 1996 for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Prosecutors said Pike, along with Tadaryl Shipp and Shadolla Peterson, planned and carried out the torture and killing of Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student, in a crime that became known as the Jobs Corps Murder.
For decades, Pike and her legal team have pursued appeals seeking to overturn her death sentence. In recent months, death penalty opponents and advocacy groups have also urged state officials to grant clemency, citing Pike’s history of trauma and abuse before the crime.
In her letter, Pike acknowledged the support she has received.
“When my people showed up for me, they have showed up and showed out,” she wrote. “I am humbled beyond words.”
However, Pike’s final clemency bid was rejected Monday when Governor Lee announced he would not intervene and would allow the sentence to proceed.
Despite that decision, Pike said she has come to terms with what lies ahead.
“Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace,” the letter stated. “I am not afraid to die. I am only nervous about the process.”
Her comments come amid continuing scrutiny of Tennessee’s execution procedures. The state’s death penalty system has faced questions in recent years following execution delays and procedural concerns. Earlier this year, the execution of inmate Tony Carruthers was halted after officials were unable to establish intravenous access following an extended effort.
The physician involved in that attempted execution, Mark Fowler, is expected to oversee Pike’s execution.
Tennessee most recently carried out an execution in August when Anthony Darrell Hines was executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution for the 1985 murder of Catherine Jean Jackson Jenkins.
Pike also addressed her public image in the letter, saying many people have only seen a limited version of who she is through media reports and courtroom testimony.
She wrote that the public has largely been exposed to a “limited persona” rather than what she described as her true character.
Unless a last-minute legal intervention occurs, Pike is scheduled to be executed Wednesday morning in Nashville. If carried out, the execution would mark the first time a woman has been executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
