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State seeks execution date for only woman on Tennessee death row

TDOC

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Lawyers for the only woman on Tennessee’s death row are asking the state Supreme Court to recommend that Gov. Bill Lee commute her sentence to life after prosecutors sought an execution date.

The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office asked the high court to set an execution date for Christa Gail Pike, contending she has exhausted her appeals.

Pike was 18 when she and Tadaryl Shipp killed Colleen Slemmer in a remote spot on the University of Tennessee’s agriculture campus in 1995.

News outlets report Pike’s legal team cited their client’s youth at the time of the crime, mental illness and childhood trauma in arguments against setting a date. 

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