Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has rejected a clemency request from death row inmate Christa Pike, leaving her facing execution by lethal injection.
Lee said he reached the decision after reviewing Pike’s case and considering her plea for clemency.
“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,” Lee said in a statement.
Pike’s legal team has also suffered a setback after the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to halt the execution.
Her attorneys have challenged the state’s lethal injection procedures, arguing that the protocol could subject her to unconstitutional pain and suffering. The legal challenges, however, have so far failed to stop the execution.
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she was convicted in the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
According to court records, Pike, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and another teenager lured Slemmer into a wooded area after meeting her at a job training programme for troubled young people.
Slemmer was then subjected to a prolonged assault that ended in her death.
Pike was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for her role in the killing. Shipp, because he was a juvenile at the time, was not eligible for the death penalty under Tennessee law and was instead sentenced to life imprisonment.
Pike has spent more than three decades on death row.
Despite the governor’s decision, her legal fight may not yet be over. Her attorneys have petitioned the US Supreme Court seeking to stop the execution and secure a last-minute reprieve.
In a letter to NBC News, shared through her spiritual adviser, Pike said she had come to terms with the possibility of her execution.
“Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace,” she wrote.
“I am not afraid to die,” Pike added, saying her main concern was how the execution itself would be carried out.
The Supreme Court petition represents Pike’s latest effort to delay or prevent the execution after previous challenges to Tennessee’s execution procedures were unsuccessful.