MENTAL HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS
The case has sparked debate over capital punishment for younger criminals.
Pike was 18 when she and her boyfriend beat and killed Colleen Slemmer, 19, at a job coaching camp for younger individuals.
The killing gained nationwide consideration after Slemmer’s physique was discovered with a pentagram, typically seen as a satanic image, carved in her chest.
Pike’s legal professionals argued she ought to be granted clemency as a result of her younger age and psychological well being points on the time of the killing.
“She was 18 when she dedicated her crime, and she or he was deeply mentally ailing,” they wrote in a clemency petition to Tennessee Governor Invoice Lee, who stated he wouldn’t intervene.
The US Supreme Court docket had rejected Tuesday an software for a keep of execution, which argued that Pike’s historical past as a sufferer of sexual assault, post-traumatic stress dysfunction and a blood situation meant a deadly injection would trigger “pointless struggling”.
Unbiased UN rights consultants have urged the US authorities and Tennessee authorities to “instantly halt” the execution and commute her demise sentence.
“Pike’s execution would mark the end result of a trajectory of extreme bodily and psychological struggling marked by childhood abuse and practically three many years of solitary confinement on demise row,” they stated.
Within the US, solely 18 girls have been executed since 1976, in accordance with the Dying Penalty Data Middle.
