Tennessee Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Says She Shares 'Uniquely Female Issues' With Lindsay Clancy and Feels a 'Kinship' Ahead of Execution for 1995 Murder

Christa Pike, 50, stated that she felt a “kinship” with Lindsay Clancy in an interview before her scheduled execution on September 30.

Clancy is charged with murdering her three children and had a mistrial declared at her triple-murder trial in September.

If the lethal injection is carried out, Pike will be the first woman to be put to death by the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years.

“I feel a kinship with Lindsay," Pike said. "We are both females who got into trouble because of uniquely female issues,” Pike stated. “One thing is different, however, is that times have changed a lot on awareness of women’s issues since I was put on trial.”

“I am pleased she received a mistrial and is getting the help she needs. There are so many women who don’t get the help they need: me and others,” Pike added.

When asked whether jurors might have been more sympathetic if she had been tried today, she said she believes they would be, “because science about brain development has evolved.”

Attorneys representing Pike reportedly interviewed her for The Times in person on September 24 at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville.

Clancy is accused of strangling to death her three young children, 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan, at their home in Duxbury, Mass., on January 24, 2023. Her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, found Lindsay outside after she had attempted to take her own life, in an act that left her paralyzed from the waist down, and then found the children in the basement.

The defense has maintained that she suffered from postpartum psychosis triggered (or exacerbated) by overmedication and inadequate mental health services. The prosecution maintains that she intentionally and knowingly murdered her children. On Friday, September 4, Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial based upon a hung jury.

No trial date was established during a September 29 status hearing regarding the possibility of retrying Lindsay, but another hearing is scheduled for Monday, November 2, according CNN. Lindsay continues to be held in state custody at a psychiatric hospital.

In January 1995, Christa, along with Tadaryl Shipp (her then-boyfriend) and her friend Shadolla Peterson, lured Colleen Slemmer, 19, a fellow student at Knoxville Job Corps, to a remote location on the University of Tennessee agricultural campus. There, Colleen was stabbed and beaten to death. A pentagram was carved into her chest during the assault.

Christa was found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and subsequently given the death penalty in March 1996. Tadaryl, at age 17 and ineligible for the death penalty, received a prison term of life with the opportunity for parole. Shadolla pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and was given six years of probation.

On Monday, September 28, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he wouldn't grant Christa clemency.

“After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” Bill said in a statement, as reported by NewsChannel 5.

Before Bill's statement, the Tennessee Supreme Court also refused to stay the execution, and her attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay.

Christa’s attorneys referenced her history of childhood trauma, abuse and undiagnosed mental illness, and they further referenced court documents stating that at 18, her “immature, traumatized brain made her exceptionally vulnerable to impulses and extremely poor decisions.”

In a letter to NBC News written before Bill’s clemency announcement, Christa wrote, “Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace.”