Halfway2sane

forty-nine year old christa pike, the only woman on tennessee’s death row has been scheduled for execution more than thirty years after she brutually killed a classmate. christa was just eighteen years old when she and two others lured nineteen year old colleen slemmer into the woods to brutually attack her. why would she do this you ask? well, let’s take a look into her life, as some people say her troubled life is why she made some of her choices.

christa was born prematurely on march 10th, 1976 to carissa hansen and emil glenn pike in beckley, west virginia, where she and her older half sister were initially raised. her parents had a tumultuous relationship. they were only married for two years and divorced when crissa was caugh cheating. but they remarried after another two years after carissa attempted suicide. an aunt of christa’s said when christa was an infant the house was so disgusting she would be crawling through piles of dog feces all over the house. her mother was a bad drinker and continued to drink a lot even after finding out that christa, as a toddler, was having severe seizures. her paternal grandmother would frequently take care of her. her grandmother’s boyfriend began raping christa, forcing his penis into her mouth over a period of years. after christa began school, when asked what she did at home she drew a man with a horrifying face and larage genetalia. the school contacted her parents, but social services failed to intervene and police were never called.

when christa was eleven years old she was raped by a man who lived in a trailer in her neighborhood. christa’s mother didn’t initially believe her until she developed an infection from the rape and a teacher intervened. the man was prosecuted. he pled guilty to a reduced assault charge and he continued to live nearby. in the third grade christa attempted suicide herself by overdosing on acetaminophine. she did receive psychiatric treatment and therapy after this, although i don’t know for how long. in 1988 when she was twelve years old her grandmother passed away and she once again attempted suicide for which she received very little support.

christa failed the seventh grade, despite standardized test scores in the upper percentile for her age group.when she was seventeen years old a stranger grabbed her by the side of the road, threw her down and violently raped her. the person was never arrested.

christa continued to be unstable throughout her teenage years and she was both the recipient and perpetrator of violence. one of her mother’s male partners began to abuse christa. one of them used a paddle to beat her, hanging it outside her room as a constant threat. she was punched in the face and given a bloody nose and would twist her nipples while they wrestled.

one time, one of her mother’s boyfriends punched christa in the face after she chased him with a butcher knife. criminal charges were filed but then settled. one of her younger half sisters claimed christa had sexually assaulted her and her father made her leave the home. and christa once claimed to have been sexually assaulted or molested several times but her friends and family didn’t believe this, saying she is a pathological liar. her mother said that one time she received a phone call from a man threatening to rape her and christa and a friend of her beat this man with a stick in a parking lot. due to christa’s unstable home life she had to frequently change schools, which affected her performance in school. when she was in tenth grade she was sent to a juvenile facility for a year. there, she became interested in the job corps which is a goveernment program aimed at helping low income youth by offering vocational training and career skills. she completed her ged program and wanted to train as a nurse or nrsing assistant. in late 1994, she attended the job corps center in knoxville, tennessee. but instead of providing a stable enviroment, job corps formented a culture of violence and aggression, where students routinely carried razor blades and box cutters to protect themselves from each other and the rampant violence. in her junior year she began dating a boy named tadaryl shipp, who embodied that violent envirment and doled out abuse and affection in equal doses.

he hit her and kicked her and despite that christa felt he loved her and took care of her, saying no one else had ever protected her like he did. the both developed an interest in the occult and devil worship. nearly a year after her rape, christa became jealous of a classmate, nineteen year old colleen slemmer, who she believed was trying to steal her boyfriend. so christa, and her friend eighteen year old shadolla peterson planned t lure colleen to an isolated and abandoned steam plant near the university of tennessee campus. and on january 12th, 1995, christa, tadaryl, shadolla and colleen signed out of the dormatory and proceeded into the woods where the group told colleen they wanted to make peace by offering her some marijuana. once they were in the secluded area, christa and tadaryl attacked colleen while shadolla acted as the lookout. for thirty minutes colleen was taunted, beaten, slashed and had a pentagram carved into her chest. they physically attacked her with a range of weapons. and then, to finish it off, christa picked up a large piece of asphalt and smashed colleens skull killing her. and christa, she kept a piece of colleen’s skull as a souvenier and went around school showing it off. the log book at the school showed the four of them signing out of school but only showed three of them signing back in. within thirty-six hours the trio was arrested. detectives found the piece of skull in christa’s jacket pocket and soon after her arrest she confessed to torturing and killing colleen, but insisted they were just trying to scare her and it got out of control. eyewitness accounts and evidence suggested that christa exhibited not only a lack of remorse during and after the act but also disturbing pleasure in the violence.

christa’s trial began in 1996. the prosecution portrayed her as a heartless young woman who, despite her tender age, exhibited a level of depravity that warranted the harshest punishment available under the law. as prosecutors laid out the gruesome details of the murder, they painted a chilling picture of christa’s psychology, suggesting that her choices reflected a conscious and calculated decision to inflict harm. the defense portrayed her youthful indescretions and troubled upbringing sought to evoke sympathy. they argued she was a product of her enviroment, suggesting she had succumbed to the overwhelming influence of her peers. the defense’s narrative questioned whether a death sentence for such a young individual would be a moral response to her actions, emphasizing the potential for rehabilitation and the possibility of learning frm one’s mistakes. the jury found christa pike guilty of first degree murder, leading to her being sentenced to death. a deceision that sparked debate regarding the viability of capital punishment for minors.

christa is now fifty years old. she is not the same person she was at the age of eighteen. medical research conducted over the last two decades has established that the juvenile brain does not fully develop until a person is in their mid twenties. yet christa was set to die, while tadaryl, who was only a few months younger at the time of the crime that they committed together, was not. the disparate treatment they received is based on tennessee law that excludes juveniles, defined as anyone under eighteen, from capital punishment. yet neuroscientists now know that there is no meaningful difference in brain development between a seventeen year old and eighteen year old.

christa has always accepted responsibility for her role in colleens death. at the same time, her involvement in the crime cannot be separated from her youth and her history of child sexual assault, rape, brain impairment and severe mental illness. against this backround of violence and neglect, christa became increasingly mentally ill. it would not be until several years after she was sentenced to death that her bipolar disorder would be indentified and treated, finally explaing the raving thoughts, impulsivity, insomnia, and mood swings she had suffered her entire life. she developed ptsd as a result of the sexual violence she suffered as a child. people living with ptsd often feel acute terror and helplessness, which can damage parts of the brain responsible for executive decision making. her long term clinical therapist in prison, described her as being in a near constant fight or flight mode. because of her childhood trauma, christa experienced the world as a place of danger that requires constant vigilance. dissociation was another effect of her severe trauma. she experienced herself as separate from her body, watching herself from the outside.

at christa’s trial her lawyer was completely unprepared to explain to the jury why they should spare her life. their barebones presentation as to why the jury should spare her life was over within a few hours. the jury never heard about her mental illness, brain damage and history of rape and abuse, bipolar or ptsd, even though all that evidence was available at the time of her trial.

as the only woman on tennessee’s death row for many years, she spent twenty seven years in solitary confinement in a cell the size of a parking space. her cell is adjacent to the section of the women’s prison reserved for people who are severely mentally ill or who are deemed to be rissks to themselves or others because of their behavior. screaming, wailing and shouting make up the soundtrack of her days. this, though, sounds contradictory to me. they are saying she is mentally ill and should be spared her life but yet are complaining about her being housed around the mentally ill. shouldn’t she be there? you can’t have it both ways.

even confined to the cell, christa retains the spark her teachers noticed decades earlier. once determined to be a nurse, she now cares for other women in need, advocation on their behalf with the prison administration. new inmates to her cell pod are often surprised with a bag of coffee as a welcoming gift, courtesy of christa. she’s also a talented artist, drawing portraits as often as she draws fantastical creatures like mermaids as a brief reprieve from reality.

she has sought opportunities for personal growth. engaging in various educational programs and self-improvement courses, she turned her attention toward acquiring knowledge and cultivating emotional intelligence.

christa is not seeking absolution for what she did as an eighteen year old. she is asking for her sentence to be commuted to life in prison as an act of mercy. a sentence of life in prison would be consistent with tennessee’s treatment of tadaryl shipp. it would also be consistent with justice, as it would reflect the punishment imposed on other young people who, like christa, committed crimes while they lacked the maturity and reasoning of responsible adults.

reflecting on her life, christa says: “i had more than my fair share of trauma growing up, and i realized that so many others have that didn’t commit violent crimes. i don’t use that or anything else as an excuse for what i did. there is no excuse for what i did. there are reasons for the way i acted. but nothing excuses the crime and the damage its caused to so many lives. i take full responsibility for my actions and regret everything that happened that night. if i could take it all back i would. i’m not even close to being the same person i was over twenty-five years ago.

despite her personal evolution and attempts to seek a second chance, the state of tennessee persistently upheld her death sentence through a series of appeals and resentencing hearings.

christ’s case is deeply unsettling. it represents the convergence of youth, violence, mental illness and justice in a way that defies easy explanation or resolution.

colleens mother has repeatedly asked authorities to please return her skull to her for proper burial, but it’s remained in possession of the state as evidence. authorities stated it would not be returned while the case remained open, awaiting christa’s execution.