Christa Pike seeks firing squad, not lethal injection: Inside US executions

Christa Pike, 50, who was convicted of torturing and killing a classmate when she was 18, was due to die by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but according to a report by The New York Post, she has asked to be shot by an all-female firing squad instead.

Human rights experts have condemned the decision to continue with the execution at all, but say the Supreme Court can still overturn the stay of execution.

Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who has represented many death row inmates in the past, told Al Jazeera: “Very few women are executed, but fewer still in Tennessee – it has been 200 years. So this is a step back to about 1820.

So why does Pike hope to avoid lethal injection in preference for the firing squad, and how does the US put people to death? Here’s what you need to know:

What was Christa Pike convicted of?
Pike was found guilty of the murder of another young woman she viewed as a romantic rival more than 30 years ago.

In January 1995, Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson lured Colleen Slemmer, 19, into a wooded area and tortured and killed her. All four were students at a Job Corps vocational centre in Knoxville.
The case attracted huge public interest, especially after it was revealed that the attackers had carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest, which Shipp later admitted to carving. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull.

Pike and Shipp confessed and were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996. Pike was sentenced to death; Shipp received life with the possibility of parole.

“Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions,” her lawyers wrote.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has spoken in support of the execution.