Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has refused to stop the execution of Christa Pike, clearing the way for her to be put to death on Wednesday. Pike, 50, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Central Time on September 30 at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.

"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 on September 28.

Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. She was 18 at the time, making her the youngest woman to receive the death penalty in the modern era. She would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Her attorneys had asked for the sentence to be commuted to life, citing severe childhood sexual abuse, neglect, and trauma, and said the governor's decision leaves "vital questions" about the execution protocol unanswered. Pike's lawyers have also asked the US Supreme Court to halt the execution. That case is pending.