Christa Pike is set to become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years, after a court upheld her death sentence for the murder of a fellow student in 1995.
Pike was convicted of killing a classmate at a university in 1995 and was sentenced to death in 2000. The sentence was carried out after the Tennessee Board of Parole and the state’s governor declined to grant clemency.
Her lawyers have argued that she should be granted clemency, saying that if the crime had occurred today she would not have received a death sentence. They contend that Pike was a victim of her circumstances and that the punishment is disproportionate by contemporary standards.
While Tennessee has carried out many executions of men over the past two centuries, no woman has been executed in the state since the early 19th century. The upcoming execution has drawn attention to the state’s use of the death penalty and the debate over its application to female offenders.
The case remains a focal point for discussions about criminal justice reform and the role of clemency in the American legal system.
<small>Source: BBC News — read the original story there.</small>