Christa Pike to be first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years - but her defence say she's a victim too

Image source, Tennesse Department of CorrectionsImage caption, Christa Pike's lawyers have filed a clemency petition seeking to commute her sentence ahead of the 30 September execution date ByStephanie HegartyBBC World Service CorrespondentAshlee Sellars last heard from her friend Christa Pike earlier this week, when Pike texted her from her cell on death row as she prepares to be killed by lethal injection by the US state of Tennessee.Pike told Sellars she does not want any of her loved ones to be present on Wednesday when she is executed. "She doesn't want us to experience that," Sellars says.Sellars finds it hard to reconcile this woman, whom she has only known to be kind and protective, with the person who committed a heinous crime 31 years ago.Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens.The murder created a media frenzy in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995 when Colleen was found with a pentagram, a symbol of Satanic ritual, carved into her chest.Pike had accused Colleen of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend. Two other residents a...