Tennessee is set to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years

Christa Pike, now 50, is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday in what Tennessee would mark as its first execution of a woman in 200 years. Pike was 18 when she killed her classmate Colleen Slemmer, 19, in 1995 in Knoxville, at the Knoxville Job Corps, following a jealous rage prosecutors said she believed Slemmer was a romantic rival. Prosecutors said Pike and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer, and the case drew national attention for the brutality, ages involved, and a satanic symbol carved into the victim’s body. Pike does not deny guilt, but her attorneys argue the death sentence is improper due to her untreated mental illness and traumatic childhood. Governor Bill Lee said Monday he would not grant clemency, and lawyers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay.