金·钱德勒、克里斯汀·M·霍尔 田纳西州纳什维尔——克里斯塔·派克在18岁时因嫉妒而杀害了一名同学，成为被判处死刑的最年轻女性之一。如今50岁的她，定于周三被执行死刑，这将是田纳西州200年来首次处决女性。
KIM CHANDLER, KRISTIN M. HALL NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday in what would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in 200 years.
派克及其男友于1995年因杀害19岁的同学科琳·斯莱默而被定罪，两人当时均在诺克斯维尔的乔布科尔斯（Job Corps）机构学习。检方称，派克担心斯莱默是其情敌，遂将其诱至一处偏僻地点，与男友一同对斯莱默实施酷刑并将其杀害。由于作案手段极其残忍、涉案人员年龄较小，且受害者身上被刻有撒旦符号，该案引发了广泛关注。
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer. The case got widespread attention because of the brutality of the killing, the ages of the people involved and because a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body.
派克并不否认自己有罪，但她的律师和支持者认为，鉴于她在青少年时期患有未得到治疗的精神疾病，且童年遭受过残酷的性虐待和忽视，判处死刑并不恰当。斯莱默的母亲希望执行死刑，称她已等待数十年，只为看到派克的判决得以执行。
Pike does not deny her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argue a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teen with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect. Slemmer’s mother wants the execution to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
田纳西州州长比尔·李周一宣布，他不会授予赦免。派克的律师已向最高法院申请暂缓执行死刑。派克的律师表示，她经历了一个极其创伤和虐待性的童年。
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday that he would not grant clemency. Pike’s attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to stay the execution. Pike’s attorneys said she experienced an exceptionally traumatic and abusive childhood.
联邦公设辩护人斯蒂芬·费雷尔称，派克从幼儿时期起就遭受性虐待，并在11岁和17岁时遭到强奸。他表示，在审判的量刑阶段，派克的律师未向陪审团提供他认为关于其过往的关键信息，也未主张应考虑其年龄因素。
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike was sexually abused starting from when she was a toddler and that she was raped at ages 11 and 17. He said Pike’s lawyers at the penalty phase of her trial did not present the jury with what he said was critical information about her past or argue that her age should be a consideration.
皮克后来被诊断出患有双相情感障碍和创伤后应激障碍。她向警方表示，自己最初只是想与斯莱默打架，但在激动的情绪中却杀死了她。在她的减刑申请书中，皮克的律师指出，她未得到治疗的精神疾病以及她的个人背景导致她无法控制自己的行为。“我当时只是一个患有精神疾病的18岁少女；我花了多年时间才意识到自己所犯行为的严重性，更难接受自己的行为对他人造成了多大的伤害。我夺走了一个人孩子的生命、她的妹妹的生命、她的朋友的生命……现在回想起来，我简直无法相信自己竟然有能力犯下这样的罪行。”皮克在减刑申请书中这样写道。
Pike was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pike told police she initially only wanted to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her in a frenzied attack. In her clemency petition, Pike’s attorneys said her untreated mental illness and background made her unable to “put the brakes on.”“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.
费雷尔表示，如今人们对青少年大脑发育的认知已经有所提高，因此皮克被判处死刑的情况属于异常现象。他指出，皮克的男友塔达里尔·希普（当时17岁）因年龄关系被判处无期徒刑，但去年他的假释申请被驳回；还有第三名青少年承认自己是该案的从犯，仅被判处缓刑。
Ferrell said more today is known about adolescent brain development and that Pike’s death sentence is an outlier. He noted that Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because of his age. He was denied parole last year. A third teen admitted to being an accessory and received probation.
费雷尔指出，在现代死刑制度下，田纳西州其他被判处死刑的18岁青少年后来都获得了减刑。死刑信息中心的数据显示，在现代死刑制度实施以来，全国共有275人因在18岁、19岁或20岁时犯下的罪行而被执行死刑，但针对这一年龄段的死刑判决已经变得越来越罕见。
In the modern death penalty era, Ferrell said, other 18-year-olds who were sentenced to death in Tennessee have since had their sentences reduced. The Death Penalty Information Center said 275 people nationwide have been executed for crimes they committed at age 18, 19 or 20 in the modern death penalty era, but that death sentences for those in that age group have become increasingly rare.
“如果克里斯塔·皮克是在今天接受审判的，我相信任何一个了解她童年时期所遭受的性虐待和忽视情况的陪审团都不会判处她死刑。”死刑信息中心的执行主任罗宾·M·马赫说。
“If Christa Pike was tried today, I do not believe a jury that knew about the documented sexual abuse and neglect she experienced as a child would sentence her to death,” Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said.
通过电话从佛罗里达州赶来的斯莱默的母亲梅·马丁内斯也提到了女儿的年龄，并表示斯莱默根本就没有机会长大成人。“每当我想到这件事，我就会想起科琳所承受的痛苦，以及她试图逃离那种痛苦的决心。”马丁内斯说。
Speaking by telephone from Florida, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, also pointed to her daughter’s age and said Slemmer never got a chance to grow up. “Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” Martinez said.
马丁内斯说，她的女儿曾在特奥会（Special Olympics）中担任志愿者，非常喜欢滑轮溜冰，并希望从事与计算机相关的工作。
Martinez said her daughter volunteered with the Special Olympics, loved roller skating and wanted to pursue a career in computers.
“她性格随和，本来就对计算机技术很感兴趣。她和我的丈夫经常一起拆解和组装电脑，”马丁内斯回忆道，“她对每个人都充满信任，而这正是她悲剧的根源。”她提到，女儿在谋杀案发生的当晚从‘就业培训项目’（Job Corps）给她打了电话，但由于信号不佳，通话多次中断；当马丁内斯回拨时，女儿已经离开了家。
“She was easygoing. She was a computer geek to begin with. She and my husband would build and tear apart the computers constantly,” Martinez said. “She trusted everybody, and that was her downfall.”She said her daughter called her from Job Corps on the night of the murder, but the call was dropping because of bad reception. When Martinez called back, her daughter had already gone out.
“每天、每时每刻，我都在思念着科琳。节假日尤其让人难以忍受……科琳的生日就在上周，她本应该51岁了。”马丁内斯哽咽着说道。
“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst. Colleen’s birthday was last week. She would have been 51,” Martinez said.
这起谋杀案震惊了整个诺克斯维尔市。检察官称，派克用美工刀刺伤了斯莱默，然后用一大块沥青块击打了她。这起犯罪行为引发了人们对“撒旦崇拜”的恐惧——这种恐惧曾在20世纪80至90年代的“撒旦恐慌”期间蔓延开来。派克的男友希普（Shipp）承认，是他将一个象征撒旦主义的五角星图案刻在了科琳的尸体上。
The slaying rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism, into her body.
马赫（Maher）表示，如果派克的死刑执行按计划进行，这将是田纳西州自1820年以来首次对女性实施死刑。
If Pike’s execution proceeds as scheduled, it would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman since 1820, Maher said.
根据相关统计，美国对女性囚犯的处决也非常罕见：自1976年以来，全国仅有18名女性被执行死刑，占所有死刑案例的不到1%。最近的一次是2023年，密苏里州以2003年发生的谋杀罪为由处决了跨性别女性安珀·麦克劳克林（Amber McLaughlin），这被认为是美国历史上首次对跨性别女性执行死刑。2021年，联邦政府处决了丽莎·蒙哥马利（Lisa Montgomery），这也是近七十年以来美国政府首次对女性囚犯执行死刑；2015年，佐治亚州也执行了一名女性的死刑。
Executions of female inmates are also rare in the U.S. Since 1976, 18 women have been executed in the country, representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center. Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin, a transgender woman, for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government has put a female inmate to death.
钱德勒（Chandler）从阿拉巴马州的蒙哥马利市发回了这则报道。
Georgia executed a woman in 2015. Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.