In 1995, the torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer stunned Tennessee and the nation, and the horrifying details ensured that Christa Pike’s name would be forever linked to cruelty. At 20, she became the youngest woman on death row in modern U.S. history.
Now 30 years older, she sits in a cell facing a date with death she insists should never come. Through her lawyers, Pike argues that her age at the time, her bipolar disorder, PTSD, and years of isolation have reshaped her into someone fundamentally different from the teenager who killed.
The state disagrees, stressing that the Constitution does not promise a painless death, and that her sentence reflects the gravity of her crime.
As courts weigh her Buddhist beliefs, medical risks, and mental health against the savagery of Colleen’s final hours, another voice refuses to fade: Colleen’s mother, May Martinez, who has spent decades begging for the one thing she believes might finally let her daughter rest.