Pike v. State
Christa Pike was sentenced to death for a crime committed when she was 18 years old; she is currently the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. If Ms. Pike had been a few months younger at the time of her offense, she would be constitutionally protected from receiving the death penalty pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roper v. Simmons.
Juvenile Law Center, Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, Children & Family Justice Center, The Sentencing Project, and Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project filed an amicus brief in support of Ms. Pike’s Application for Permission to Appeal her death sentence in the Supreme Court of Tennessee. Our brief highlighted neuroscientific research demonstrating that older adolescents share the same developmental characteristics of youth relied upon by the Supreme Court in Roper when it abolished the death penalty for youth under 18 years of age. We argued that, based on this scientific consensus, the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, and evolving standards of decency, the imposition of the death penalty on older adolescents like Ms. Pike constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.
The Supreme Court of Tennessee denied Ms. Pike’s Application for Permission to Appeal.
LEGAL TEAM
Attorneys
Andrew Keats, Marsha Levick, Hannah Stommel
Paralegals
Tiffany Faith, Marissa Lariviere