This episode of World’s Most Dangerous Prisoners tells story of Christa Gail Pike, who, at 18, became one of the youngest women in the US sentenced to death row. Pike was convicted of the murder of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995.
Born in 1976, Pike’s life was marked by instability and trauma, with frequent moves between her mother’s home in Tennessee and her father’s in West Virginia. By the time she earned her GED in 1993, she had attended 12 different schools. Pike’s parents had a turbulent relationship, and both were often neglectful.
Consequently, she was primarily raised by her grandmother until the age of 12. After her grandmother’s passing, Pike faced further challenges, including her mother’s alcoholism and abuse by her father. At 13, she experienced sexual assault at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend.
The episode explores the legal appeals made by Pike’s lawyers in May 2014, seeking to commute her sentence from death to life imprisonment. They argued ineffective assistance of counsel, mental illness, and the unconstitutionality of capital punishment in Tennessee. However, all grounds were rejected, and relief was denied. As of September 2024, Pike remains the sole woman on Tennessee’s death row.
World’s Most Dangerous Prisoners: Pike airs Sunday, 22 September 2024, at 10:00 PM on 5STAR.
