Woman to be executed faces trauma claims

Christa Pike, a 50-year-old woman scheduled for execution in Tennessee on Sept. 30, has a history of sexual abuse that her attorneys claim will be retriggered during her execution.

Pike was raped multiple times as a child and teenager, including by her grandmother's boyfriend, a neighbor, and a stranger. These experiences led to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Her attorneys and women's advocacy groups argue that the execution process, involving corrections officers strapping down her head, arms, and legs, and a male doctor administering a lethal injection, will cause her to relive the trauma of her rapes.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Office does not dispute any of the sexual violence Pike experienced throughout her girlhood nor her diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder from long-term trauma. The state maintains that her death sentence represents justice and that Pike must be held to account for her crime.

Pike, who was 18 when she and her boyfriend killed Slemmer in 1995, is the only woman on Tennessee's death row. Only 18 women have been executed in the U.S. in the last 50 years.

Pike's attorneys argue that the execution would constitute gender-based violence and that her trauma and mental illness should be considered in her case.