Key Facts

When Christa Pike received her sentence on March 30, 1996, she became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the United States in the...

Christa Pike was the victim of severe, repeated physical and sexual abuse, violence, and neglect that began when Christa was very young....

In addition to being born with organic brain damage, Christa suffers from bipolar disorder and severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder....

Christa’s state appointed lawyers failed to present any mitigating evidence of her history of sexual violence and abuse to the jury, and her sentence is also disproportionate to the other two defendants who were involved. In January 1995, Christa (age 18), Tadaryl Shipp (age 17), and Shadolla Peterson (age 19) killed another teenaged girl, Colleen Slemmer, also a young Job Corps student. The murder was sensationalized because a pentagram had been carved into the victim’s ches

Prior to a recent settlement, Christa had been held in solitary confinement for 27 years, which exacerbated her underlying mental health...