Warped reason female Tennessee death row inmate is demanding all-woman execution squad after torturing love rival to death… and victim’s mom wants a front row seat

It’s been a long 30-year wait, but the day has almost arrived.

Next week, May Martinez plans to sit in the front row of a Tennessee execution chamber, clutching a picture of her late daughter as she watches her killer, Christa Pike, take her final breaths.

Pike, now 50, was just 18 when she lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student, to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee’s campus and subjected her to a torturous attack that ended in a fatal bludgeoning.

Convicted the following year, Pike became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the US. She is also set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

As her September 30 execution approaches, Pike has made a series of last-minute requests for her final moments.

She has asked for an all-female team to carry out her lethal injection, arguing that being restrained and handled by men could retraumatize her because of past sexual abuse. If that request is denied, she has asked to be hanged instead.

At the same time, Pike’s lawyers are asking Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to grant her clemency and commute her sentence to life without parole, citing her history of childhood sexual abuse and mental illness.

But May Martinez told the Daily Mail she has little sympathy for Pike’s plight or past.

‘I don’t think she should be allowed to have any special treatment,’ she said. ‘She didn’t consider how my daughter felt – she’s just playing the system.

‘It’s all bullcrap.’

Pike, now 50, was 18 when she lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer (above) to her death in January 1995, in a horrifying attack that lasted more than an hour

The portrait of Pike being put forward by the lawyers fighting to save her life contrasts dramatically with the one painted by prosecutors who argued for her death 30 years ago.

In a 226-page clemency petition, Pike’s attorneys argue that she is now terrified of what awaits her, suffering ‘horrible nightmares’ and ‘shredded’ nerves as judgment day edges closer.

They have asked Governor Lee to consider a childhood marked by repeated sexual violence, physical abuse and neglect, much of which her lawyers say was never properly addressed by the adults and institutions around her.

According to the petition, Pike was sexually abused by her grandmother’s boyfriend from the ages of two to five. At 11, she was raped by a 37-year-old neighbor who received only a suspended sentence and continued living nearby.

Then, at 17 – almost exactly a year before Colleen’s murder – Pike reported being dragged into the woods and raped by a stranger while walking to a store. A rape kit was performed, but the attacker was never identified.

Her attorneys also claim she endured physical abuse at home, attempted suicide several times as a child, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and PTSD after reaching death row.

None of Pike’s documented history of sexual abuse was presented to the jury when deciding whether she should live or die.

Her lawyers argue that omission deprived jurors of crucial context about the teenager they were sentencing – context they insist does not excuse Colleen’s murder, but should matter when deciding Pike’s fate.

‘Christa was broken, not evil,’ her attorneys argued in the petition. ‘She was broken by the people and places that were meant to be safe and supportive.

‘She was broken by a mental health system, juvenile system, and a criminal justice system that ignored, misdiagnosed, and mistreated her at every turn.’

In appealing to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee for clemency, Pike’s defense team cited historic child abuse allegations and undiagnosed bipolar for reasons to grant her life without parole

Slemmer’s mom, May Martinez (pictured), told the Daily Mail she is planning on being front row for the execution, holding up a picture of her daughter to ensure it’s the last thing Pike sees

In 1996, Pike became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the United States 

Now, after receiving proper treatment, they claim the Pike of today bears little resemblance to the volatile teenager who butchered Slemmer.

Her advocates describe her as ‘thoughtful, even-tempered, bright, funny’ and deeply remorseful for her actions.

As part of the petition, Pike’s mom, Clarissa Hansen, wrote a letter appealing to Gov. Lee, in which she voiced her regrets and admitted to failing her daughter at important moments.

Insisting she was distracted by ‘work and men’ for much of Pike’s childhood, Hansen also claimed that her heart was ‘broken’ for Slemmer’s family and that she has spent years trying to ‘find ways to ease Ms. Martinez’s pain.’

But Martinez says she has never heard from Pike or anyone close to her, and that Pike’s supposed remorse has never been expressed directly to the family.

‘She hasn’t apologized in 31 years,’ Martinez said. ‘I think it’s convenient all this is coming out now.’

And while Pike’s attorneys are urging Gov. Lee to look back at the trauma they claimed shaped their client before the murder, Martinez remains haunted by what Pike did after she led her daughter into the woods on January 12, 1995.

Slemmer’s family said no matter what Pike claims, it will not account for the horrific circumstances in which she murdered her

Pike caved Slemmer’s skull (above) in with a piece of asphalt and took a piece of her skull as a trophy, showing it off to classmates, police records show

At the time, Pike had become convinced that Colleen was trying to steal her 17-year-old boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, a fellow Job Corps student with whom Pike shared an interest in satanic imagery. Friends of Colleen denied any romantic rivalry.

Pike and another student, Shadolla Peterson, hatched a plan to lure Colleen away from the school, telling her they wanted to make peace and offering to share marijuana with her in a secluded area near the University of Tennessee campus.

Colleen went with Pike, Shipp and Peterson that evening. Once they reached the woods, she was attacked.

For at least half an hour, prosecutors said, Colleen was beaten, kicked and slashed as she begged them to stop and repeatedly tried to escape.

At some point during the assault, Shipp carved a pentagram into her chest while she was still alive.

Colleen ultimately died from devastating blows to the head, administered by Pike with a chunk of asphalt.

Pike later returned to the Job Corps center with a fragment of Colleen’s skull, which she showed to other students while describing what had happened.

Colleen was found dead the next morning, naked from the waist up, her blood-soaked clothes hanging on branches above her.

Pike was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder and conspiracy in March 1996.

At sentencing, jurors found that Colleen’s murder was especially cruel and involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond what was necessary to kill her. They sentenced Pike to death.

At the time of the murder, Pike had become convinced that Colleen was trying to steal her 17-year-old boyfriend, prosecutors said

Pike was assisted by her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp (left), and their classmate, Shadolla Peterson (right). Shipp was convicted to life with parole. Peterson received a six-year suspended sentence

Shipp, meanwhile, received life in prison. Because he was 17 when Colleen was murdered, he was legally protected from execution.

Their 10-month difference in age has since become another central pillar in the case for sparing Pike’s life.

Tennessee has never executed anyone in the modern death penalty era for a crime committed at 18, state records show.

Seven other defendants who were 18 when they committed murder have been sent to the state’s death row over the past 50 years, but every one later had their death sentence vacated. The youngest offender Tennessee has executed was 23.

Pike’s attorneys have seized on that history, arguing that the legal divide between 17 and 18 fails to reflect decades of research showing that the parts of the brain governing judgment, impulse control and decision-making continue developing well beyond a person’s 18th birthday.

Her gender has also become part of the wider debate.

As Tennessee’s only female death-row prisoner, Pike spent almost three decades largely isolated from other inmates under conditions her lawyers say were substantially harsher than those experienced by condemned men.

Sandra Babcock, one of Pike’s clemency attorneys, told the Daily Mail that an international human rights commission concluded Tennessee subjected her to ‘cruel and inhumane’ conditions and treated her more harshly because she was a woman. 

Pike’s advocates have also highlighted what they see as a contradiction in Tennessee’s approach to sexual violence.

In 2024, Gov. Lee signed a law authorizing the death penalty for certain child-rape offenses, with supporters citing the lasting psychological and emotional damage inflicted on victims.

Now, Pike’s attorneys are asking the same governor to spare a woman who was repeatedly raped as a child, arguing that the impact of that trauma was never properly considered before she was sentenced.

For Martinez, however, arguments about Pike’s age, trauma or treatment in prison feel irrelevant when compared to the sheer brutality she inflicted on Colleen. 

And despite the last-minute legal maneuvering, she is confident the execution will go ahead.

Slemmer’s family remembered her as a kind, gentle and proud ‘computer nerd’ who loved helping other people

Pike is scheduled to die by lethal injection. She has requested an all-female execution team, claiming being subdued by men will trigger past childhood sexual abuse

Pike has become a keen artist behind bars, her attorneys say. One of her works from 2017 is shown above

Martinez plans to make the nearly 11-hour journey from her home in Florida to Tennessee to witness it, even though she says the state is not helping to cover her travel or hotel costs.

She is so determined to be there that she says she is willing to forgo a mortgage payment if necessary.

‘I won’t pay my mortgage,’ she said. ‘I want to be there. I need to be there.’

Once inside the execution chamber, Martinez plans to sit as close to Pike as she can and hold up a photograph of Colleen.

‘I want that last image in her face to be of what she did to an innocent, beautiful girl,’ she said.

She is not expecting an apology – and says that even if one comes, it will mean nothing to her.

And while Pike’s death will not undo what happened, Martinez believes it will finally bring an end to three decades of torment.

Asked what she imagines the moment after Pike’s execution will feel like, she said: ‘I think the sky’s going to open up so bright.’

Then her thoughts returned, as they so often do, to the daughter she lost.

‘I miss every holiday, every birthday,’ she said. ‘I miss my sweet girl talking to me.’