The United States Supreme Court has refused to intervene in the scheduled execution of Christa Pike, a 50-year-old Tennessee inmate. Convicted in 1996 for the murder of a teenage classmate, Pike was 18 at the time of the crime. Her legal team had sought a stay of execution, arguing that her age at the time of the offense should preclude a death sentence. However, Governor Bill Lee recently declined a clemency request, clearing the path for the lethal injection to proceed at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. If carried out, this event will mark the first time in over two centuries that a woman has been executed in Tennessee. Since the 1970s, female executions have remained rare in the United States, accounting for a small fraction of the total number of capital punishments administered nationwide.
Source : BBC News
Photo : BBC News
Aussi couvert par : Der Spiegel
Aussi couvert par : Tagesschau
