Christa Pike has “horrible nightmares.”
asserted
Pike → have → nightmares
Her “nerves are shredded.”
asserted
nerves → shred → ?
In eight days, the 50-year-old who killed her friend when she was a teenager will have her worst nightmares realized inside the execution chamber in Nashville, Tennessee.
asserted
nightmares → kill → Nashville
Pike is set to become the first woman put to death in Tennessee since 1819 if Governor Bill Lee does not put a stop to the scheduled execution before 10 a.m. local time on September 30.
asserted
Lee → set → September
Her lawyers, who filed a 226-page clemency petition, are still waiting for a last-minute reprieve.
asserted
who → file → reprieve
Under the state’s updated lethal injection protocol, a single-drug chemical dose of pentobarbital will enter her system while she is strapped to a gurney.
asserted
she → update → gurney
In the event that she is not spared from execution, Pike has made a special request.
asserted
Pike → spar → request
She wants an all-female execution squad to carry out the procedure in front of witnesses, including the family of her victim.
asserted
squad → want → victim
The reason, her lawyers say, is that she has post-traumatic stress disorder from the widely documented abuse she suffered at the hands of men as a young girl, including when she was just two years old.
asserted
she → say → girl
They also say her death by lethal injection will be “prolonged and agonizing” because she has a rare blood disorder that could make finding a vein more difficult and affect the way she reacts to the drug.
uncertain
she → say → drug
So afraid is Pike of the execution being carried out by lethal injection that she took the state to court in August to ask that she be hanged instead.
asserted
she → carry → August
“(Lethal injection administered by men) will increase the likelihood that an 8th Amendment violation will occur,” Pike’s lawyer Stephen Ferrell said in reference to cruel and unusual punishment.
asserted
lawyer → administer → punishment
Pike’s ultimate goal is to take execution off the table completely, and to instead be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
asserted
goal → take → parole
The state’s legal team has been unequivocal about one thing — Pike has not yet demonstrated a legitimate reason to do that.
asserted
Pike → demonstrate → that
“It was Ms Pike’s burden to come forth with scientific evidence (to overturn execution); she has completely failed to do that.”
asserted
she → come → that
An insight into what Pike is going through was part of a documentary titled: Christa Pike’s Last Fight to Stop Her Execution.
asserted
Pike → go → Execution
In it, she says she hardly sleeps.
asserted
she → say → it
“I know I said I believed a date would never be set, but now that one has been set, it’s like a roulette wheel of thought and your actual brain is the ball bouncing around.
asserted
brain → know → thought
“My nerves are shredded.
asserted
nerves → shred → ?
When I do sleep, my brain eats itself.
asserted
brain → sleep → itself
“I have the most horrible nightmares, but I think what has been worse is that they told me a year ahead of time.
asserted
they → think → time
And so, every day I’ve woken up and lived that thought all day, every day, every waking moment.”
asserted
I → wake → thought
News.com.au previously reported on details of the then-teen killer’s horrific crimes.
asserted
News.com.au → report → crimes
“This case began with the horrific and brutal 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer,” court documents, seen by news.com.au, read.
asserted
documents → begin → news.com.au
“They had a strained relationship; Pike claimed that Slemmer ‘had been trying to get [her] boyfriend’ and … ‘running her mouth’ everywhere.
asserted
Slemmer → have → mouth
“These bad feelings unfortunately resulted in the following events.”
asserted
feelings → result → events
The Tennessee Supreme Court description details how Pike lied to Slemmer about a trip to a Blockbuster video store before Pike and her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp beat their victim, slashed her throat, and engraved satanic symbols on her body.
asserted
Pike → detail → body
“On January 11, 1995, Pike, a student at the Job Corps Centre in Knoxville, told her friend Kim Iloilo, who was also a student at the facility, that she intended to kill another student, Colleen Slemmer, because she ‘had just felt mean that day’.
asserted
she → tell → student
“The next day, January 12, 1995, at approximately 8 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, along with Slemmer, and two other Job Corps students, Shadolla Peterson and Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, walking away from the Job Corps centre toward 17th Street.
asserted
Pike → observe → Street
“At approximately 10:15 p.m., Iloilo observed Pike, Peterson, and Shipp return to the Centre.
asserted
Pike → observe → Centre
Later that night, Pike went to Iloilo’s room and told Iloilo that she had just killed Slemmer and that she had brought back a piece of the victim’s skull as a souvenir.
asserted
she → go → souvenir
“Pike showed Iloilo the piece of skull and told her that she had cut the victim’s throat six times, beaten her, and thrown asphalt at the victim’s head.
asserted
she → show → head
Pike told Iloilo that the victim had begged ‘them’ to stop cutting and beating her, but Pike did not stop because the victim continued to talk.
“Pike told Iloilo that she had thrown a large piece of asphalt at the victim’s head, and when it broke into smaller pieces, she had thrown those at the victim as well.
asserted
she → tell → victim
Pike told Iloilo that a meat cleaver had been used to cut the victim’s back and a box cutter had been used to cut her throat.
asserted
cutter → tell → throat
“Finally, Pike said that a pentagram had been carved onto the victim’s forehead and chest.
asserted
pentagram → say → forehead
Iloilo said that Pike was dancing in a circle, smiling, and singing ‘la, la, la’ while she related these details about the murder.
asserted
she → say → murder
“When Iloilo saw Pike at breakfast the next morning, she asked Pike what she had done with the piece of the victim’s skull.
asserted
she → see → skull
Pike replied that it was in her pocket and then said, ‘And, yes, I’m eating breakfast with it’.”
asserted
I → reply → it
A University of Tennessee employee found Slemmer’s body on January 13.
asserted
employee → find → January
The employee testified that it was so badly beaten that he had “first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal.”
asserted
he → testify → animal
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
