Killer Christa Pike to be executed within days - but her defence say she's a victim too
Lawyers for Pike, who killed a fellow student in 1995, say she should get clemency and would not be sentenced to death if the crime happened today.
Reporting preview
Christa Pike's lawyers have filed a clemency petition seeking to commute her sentence ahead of the 30 September execution date
Ashlee Sellars last heard from her friend Christa Pike earlier this week, when Pike texted her from her cell on death row as she prepares to be killed by lethal injection by the US state of Tennessee.
Pike told Sellars she did not want any of her loved ones to be present on Wednesday when she is executed.
"She doesn't want us to experience that," Sellars says.
Sellars finds it hard to reconcile this woman, whom she has only known to be kind and protective, with the person who committed a heinous crime 31 years ago.
This preview is a source-linked editorial excerpt. Continue to the original publisher for the complete report, updates and full context.