Female death row inmate set to be executed TOMORROW reveals 'kinship' with Lindsay Clancy

A woman who is set to be executed on Wednesday for murder she committed when she was a teenager has compared herself to Lindsay Clancy.

Christa Pike was just 18 when she lured Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student, to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee's campus and subjected her to a torturous attack that ended in a fatal bludgeoning on January 12, 1995. 

Convicted the following year, Pike became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the US. She is also set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

As she faces death, Pike said she feels a 'kinship' with Clancy, whose mental health took center stage when a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial earlier this month.

The mother had faced a lifetime behind bars for killing her children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan. Clancy did not deny she strangled the children, but argued she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. 

'We are both females who got into trouble because of uniquely female issues,' Pike told The Times. 

'One thing [that] is different, however, is that times have changed a lot on awareness of women's issues since I was put on trial.'

She added that she is 'pleased' Clancy is 'getting the help she needs,' arguing: 'There are so any women who don't get the help they need: me and others.' 

Christa Pike, now 50, said she feels a 'kinship' with Lindsay Clancy

Clancy's fate remains unclear after a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial

When she was then asked whether she believed jurors would have been more sympathetic to her case if she had been tried today, Pike replied that she believes she would be 'because science about brain development has evolved.'

She also said she believes she was punished harsher than she should have been because her accomplice in Slemmer's murder was black.

'While racism has not gone away, it has diminished some,' Pike said. 'I think I was more harshly judged because of my relationship with Tadaryl.' 

Pike had become convinced that Slemmer was trying to steal her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, a fellow Job Corps student with whom Pike shared an interest in satanic imagery. Friends of Slemmer denied any romantic rivalry.

Pike and another student, Shadolla Peterson, hatched a plan to lure Colleen away from the school, telling her they wanted to make peace and offering to share marijuana with her in a secluded area near the University of Tennessee campus.

Slemmer went with Pike, Shipp and Peterson that evening. Once they reached the woods, she was attacked.

For at least half an hour, prosecutors said, Slemmer was beaten, kicked and slashed as she begged them to stop and repeatedly tried to escape.

At some point during the assault, Shipp carved a pentagram into her chest while she was still alive.

Slemmer ultimately died from devastating blows to the head, administered by Pike with a chunk of asphalt.

Pike was 18 when she lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer (above) to her death in January 1995, in a horrifying attack that lasted more than an hour

Pike brutally attacked Slemmer with her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and friend Shadolla Peterson

Pike later returned to the Job Corps center with a fragment of Slemmer's skull, which she showed to other students while describing what had happened.

Slemmer was found dead the next morning, naked from the waist up, her blood-soaked clothes hanging on branches above her.

Pike was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder and conspiracy in March 1996.

At sentencing, jurors found that Colleen's murder was especially cruel and involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond what was necessary to kill her. They sentenced Pike to death.

Pike's attorneys asked Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to grant her clemency and commute her sentence to life without parole, citing her history of childhood sexual abuse and mental illness – which were not brought up during her initial trial as mitigating factors. 

According to the petition, Pike was sexually abused by her grandmother's boyfriend from the ages of two to five. At 11, she was raped by a 37-year-old neighbor who received only a suspended sentence and continued living nearby.

Then, at 17 – almost exactly a year before Colleen's murder – Pike reported being dragged into the woods and raped by a stranger while walking to a store. A rape kit was performed, but the attacker was never identified.

Her attorneys also claim she endured physical abuse at home, attempted suicide several times as a child, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD after reaching death row.

In 1996, Pike became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the United States 

By not including those diagnoses at her trial, Pike's attorneys argue jurors were deprived of crucial context about the teenager they were sentencing. 

'Christa was broken, not evil,' her attorneys argued in the petition. 'She was broken by the people and places that were meant to be safe and supportive.

'She was broken by a mental health system, juvenile system, and a criminal justice system that ignored, misdiagnosed, and mistreated her at every turn.' 

Governor Lee denied clemency for Pike on Monday, keeping her on track to be executed. 

At the same time, Pike's attorneys have asked for an all-female team to carry out her lethal injection, arguing that being restrained and handled by men could retraumatize her because of past sexual abuse. 

If that request is denied, she has asked to be hanged instead.

Clancy, 36, is scheduled to return to Plymouth County Superior Court on Tuesday for the first time since her trial ended

The mother-of-three did not deny that she strangled her children to death, but argued she was suffering from post-partum psychosis at the time

Meanwhile, Clancy, 36, is scheduled to return to Plymouth County Superior Court on Tuesday for the first time since her trial ended for a hearing that will shape the future of her case.

The status hearing could very well set the wheels in motion for a second trial for the killings of her three children – or it could end her criminal case once and for all.

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington will argue several motions to strike down the state’s ability to retry the mom-of-three, including one calling for a finding of not guilty due to lack of criminal responsibility and one seeking to dismiss all charges citing double jeopardy rules.

The defense is also fighting for information about the one holdout juror, including his cell phone records, surveillance footage from the courthouse and access to his juror questionnaire.

Prosecutors could also reveal their own plans of whether they will try Clancy a second time and, if yes, on the same or lesser charges.

If Judge William Sullivan sides with the defense to dismiss the case or find her not guilty, Clancy’s case could be tossed entirely.

If he denies them, and the state decides to retry the case, a second trial date could be set.