// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Tennessee governor rejects clemency bid for Christa Pike as execution looms
If the execution proceeds, Christa Pike would be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has denied a clemency request from death row inmate Christa Pike, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens.
She may have one last chance at halting her execution as her attorneys have filed a petition with the US Supreme Court hoping for a last-minute reprieve.
If it proceeds, Pike would be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Only 18 women have been executed in the US since the 1970s, compared to 1,663 men.
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"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," Governor Lee said in a statement.
Pike's legal team had filed the clemency petition earlier this month, requesting that her death sentence be commuted to life in prison.
Moving ahead with Pike's execution puts Tennessee "on singular footing", her attorneys said, as she would be the first person the state "executes in the modern death penalty era who was a teenager at the time of the offence".
Attorneys Stephen Ferrell, Kelly Gleason and Randy Spivey said the governor's decision "leaves unanswered vital questions about Tennessee's execution protocol".