Supreme Court allows Christa Pike’s execution
00:00:48
Hey, Jules, good to be with you. We have been here in Nashville throughout the day today. Certainly a tense day as many people sat wondering what would happen with this ruling. This decision coming just before 6:00 PM here local time. Now, the majority here, keeping it relatively simple and to the point, essentially lifting that stay for Christa Pike’s execution. What this does is this clears the way for her death by lethal injection today. Now, we should point out that officials have not given any indication that they are not moving forward with Pike’s execution today. Christine Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has been inside of the prison for most of the day, as well as another small group of onlookers as well. And when you look at the dissent, I think this is where it gets a bit interesting. We heard from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who, along with justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, all said that this ruling short circuits the normal process in all of this because of her still-pending legal challenges to her conviction. It really doesn’t give that lower court an opportunity to properly consider those things, to the points that you made reference to just a moment ago in terms of the allegations of sexual misconduct that may have happened to Christa Pike during her youth. But I think a lot of people certainly here wanting to see some sort of resolution, wanting to see some Justice for May Martinez– obviously, for Christine Slemmer as well. You have some who say that because of the time of this murder, in that Christa Pike was a teenager at the time and has made reference to mental health challenges, suffering from bipolar disorder and the like, that that should have been taken into consideration when the death penalty was ruled on Pike. But you have the completely other side of all of this where many people are simply saying that something needs to happen here immediately because of the tragedy that unfolded back in ’95.
00:03:03
Yeah, and if we go back to ’95, it was Pike and her boyfriend both convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Do we know the details of the boyfriend?
00:03:13
Yeah, well, so just to take you back to when that was, essentially Slemmer was lured into a wooded area behind the University of Tennessee’s campus. This happened in Knoxville, Tennessee. And it was a killing that was essentially based off of jealousy over who was dating who at the time. And so Pike ultimately was convicted of the murder. Her boyfriend, who was a teenager at the time as well, was convicted and served a little bit of prison time. And then the other teenager who was there served as a lookout but also helped the state in terms of the prosecution in this, essentially testifying against Pike. She was given six years’ probation. And so, ultimately, it is Pike who will have to serve the consequences for this murder. She also had a rap sheet based off of her time in prison in terms of an attempted first-degree murder charge that happened along the way. And so I think certainly not a clean rap sheet whatsoever, and so a lot of people here certainly looking to close the book here in terms of justice being served. And so I think it will be interesting to see what May Martinez– remember, Christine Slemmer’s mother and her husband, Raul Martinez– what they either have to say or how they will be feeling because I know that this is something that they wanted to see closure to. We should point out that during the time of the murder, Pike actually took a fragment of Slemmer’s skull and was bragging about it to students in the area as well. That is something that court documents later revealed. She also carved pentagrams into Slemmer’s body. And so a lot of people certainly here remembering the grisly circumstances surrounding this incident when it happened in and of itself. And so I think this will be a bit of closure, if you will, for a lot of people, not only in the Tennessee area but definitely around the nation who have been paying attention to the story.
00:05:29
Yeah, and again, Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in two centuries. Skyler Henry, thank you so much for all the background and the information. Appreciate it.
00:05:37
You bet.
