Tennessee governor rejects clemency bid for Christa Pike as execution looms

"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"."With this decision, the State of Tennessee is ignoring what both science and our legal system have decided: an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, and 18 is too young to face execution," they said in a statement on Monday.The murder of Colleen Slemmer created a media frenzy in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995, when the 19-year-old was found with a pentagram - a symbol of Satanic ritual - carved into her chest.Pike had accused Colleen of i...