Christa Pike could be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. For the better part of three decades, Christa Pike has waited alone on Tennessee’s death row. She tortured and murdered a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, with her boyfriend and a friend.

They slashed at Colleen with a box cutter, carved a pentagram into her chest and removed a piece of her skull. Only Ms. Pike received the death penalty. She was 18 at the time of the killing.

If her execution goes as planned on Wednesday, she will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Americans have increasingly opposed the death penalty and have shown particular reluctance toward sentencing women and teenagers. Women account for about 2 percent of new death sentences issued since the modern era of capital punishment began in 1973; Missouri was the last state to execute a woman, in 2023. Ms. Pike, now 50, does not deny her guilt.

Still, some experts question whether she would be sentenced this way today. Her abusive childhood never came up at trial, something defenders now ask judges and juries to consider in sentencing. In isolation, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, which her lawyers say contributed to her mental state during the murder.