金·钱德勒（KIM CHANDLER）、克里斯蒂·M·霍尔（KRISTIN M. HALL）纳什维尔讯 — 田纳西州正准备对克里丝塔·盖尔·派克（Christa Gail Pike）执行死刑。她在1995年以18岁之龄犯下一起谋杀案，这将是该州200年来首次对女性执行死刑。
KIM CHANDLER, KRISTIN M. HALL NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee is preparing to put to death Christa Gail Pike for a 1995 murder she committed at age 18 in what would be the state’s first execution of a woman in 200 years. Pike, now 50, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday morning by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
现年50岁的派克定于周三上午在纳什维尔的里弗本德最高安全级别监狱（Riverbend Maximum Security Institution）接受注射死刑。派克和她的男友因谋杀并殴打19岁的科琳·斯莱默（Colleen Slemmer）而被定罪，受害人是他们在诺克斯维尔一个职业培训机构的同学。
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. The case garnered widespread attention at the time in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer’s body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.
这起案件在当时引起了广泛关注，部分原因是斯莱默尸体上被刻下的五角星以及犯罪的其他细节，在20世纪80和90年代的“撒旦恐慌”期间煽动了人们对撒旦崇拜的恐惧。随着执行日期的临近，该案再次引发了关于对年轻罪犯适用死刑的争论。
As the execution date drew near, it renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders. Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider Pike’s age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler.
派克并不否认自己实施了这起谋杀，但她的支持者辩称，州政府应该考虑派克作案时的年龄、精神疾病以及严重的性虐待史——她从幼儿时期起就曾遭强奸。联邦助理辩护律师斯蒂芬·费雷尔（Stephen Ferrell）表示，派克的死刑判决是一个特例，因为田纳西州其他被判处死刑的18岁罪犯的判决已被撤销。
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds sentenced to death in Tennessee have had their sentences vacated. Pike’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution.
派克的律师已请求美国最高法院暂停死刑执行。田纳西州长比尔·李（Bill Lee）此前已拒绝了派克的宽大处理请求。
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has denied Pike clemency. “I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.
派克在她的宽大处理请愿书所附的一份声明中表示：“我当时是一个患有精神疾病的18岁孩子。我花了很长时间才意识到自己所做之事的严重性。花在接受自己究竟影响了多少生命的时间甚至更长。我夺走了某个人的孩子、姐妹、朋友的生命。现在一想到自己竟然有能力犯下这样的罪行，我就感到恶心。”
“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.”
斯莱默的母亲希望注射死刑得以执行，并表示她已经等待了几十年才看到派克的判决得到执行。
Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
梅·马丁内斯（May Martinez）在一次电话采访中说：“每当我想到这件事，我就会想到科琳当时感受到的痛苦，以及她试图爬起来逃跑的情景。”
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” May Martinez said in a telephone interview.
马丁内斯表示，有一群人帮助筹集了资金，使她和她的丈夫能够从佛罗里达州赶来见证这次死刑的执行过程。
Martinez said a group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution.
1995年的这起谋杀案震惊了诺克斯维尔市。检察官称，皮克害怕斯莱默会抢走她的男朋友，于是于1995年1月12日将她诱骗到一片树林里。皮克用美工刀刺伤了斯莱默，并用一块大块的沥青块殴打她。皮克的男朋友希普承认，是他将一个与撒旦主义相关的五角星符号刻在了斯莱默的身上。
The 1995 killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. 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.
案发时希普只有17岁，被判处无期徒刑（但有假释的可能）；而皮克则是唯一被判处死刑的人。
Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with possibility of parole.
根据死刑信息中心（Death Penalty Information Center）的执行主任罗宾·M·马赫（Robin M. Maher）的说法，自1820年以来，田纳西州就再也没有执行过对女性的死刑。
Pike was the only one sentenced to death.
根据该中心的数据，自1976年以来，美国总共只有18名女性被执行死刑，这仅占所有死刑案例的1%左右。
Tennessee has not executed a woman since 1820, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
最近的一次死刑执行发生在2023年的密苏里州：安珀·麦克劳克林（Amber McLaughlin）因2003年的一起谋杀案被处决，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。
It’s a rarity across the U.S. Since 1976, 18 women have been put to death in the country, representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center. Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin 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 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。
Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama.