Tennessee to execute woman for first time in 200 years

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WASHINGTON - The US state of Tennessee was set on Wednesday to execute a woman for the first time in 200 years, three decades after she murdered a classmate.

Christa Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job training camp for young people.

The killing gained national attention after Slemmer's body was found with a pentagram, often seen as a satanic symbol, carved in her chest.

Pike will be Tennessee's first execution of a woman in more than 200 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In the United States, only 18 women have been executed since 1976, the Center says.

The case of Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, has sparked debate over capital punishment for young criminals.

Pike's lawyers argued she should be granted clemency due to her young age and mental health issues at the time of the killing.

"She was 18 when she committed her crime, and she was deeply mentally ill," they wrote in a clemency petition to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who said he would not intervene.

The US Supreme Court rejected Tuesday a last-minute application for a stay of execution, which had argued that Pike's history of sexual assault, post-traumatic stress disorder and a blood condition meant the lethal injection would cause her "needless suffering".

Pike is set to die by lethal injection at 10:00 am (1500 GMT) on Wednesday at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

Independent UN rights experts urged the US government and Tennessee authorities to "immediately halt" the execution and commute her death sentence.

"Pike's execution would mark the culmination of a trajectory of severe physical and psychological suffering marked by childhood abuse and nearly three decades of solitary confinement on death row," they said. — Agence France-Presse