Death Row inmate Christa Pike resumes appeals

Death Row inmate Christa Pike resumes appeals

January 29, 2007

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- A hearing for Death Row inmate Christa Gail Pike began Monday and continues Tuesday as she again appeals her sentence.

Pike is in the second round of appeals. But four years ago, she attempted to stop her appeals, before later changing her mind.

Knox County Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz ruled Pike's change of mind was too late. However, the state Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2006.

Pike was sentenced to die for killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer while both were enrolled in the federal Job Corps program in Knoxville in 1995.

Slemmer was tortured for half an hour, a pentagram carved into her chest, her head bashed in with a rock and left to die on the University of Tennessee Agriculture campus.

In 2004, Pike was given an additional 25 year sentence for trying to kill another inmate during a prison fight.