Pike, now 50, was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend beat, tortured and murdered Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old they met at a job training camp for troubled teens. Her attorneys have filed a petition with the US Supreme Court, hoping for a last-minute reprieve.
If the execution proceeds, Pike would be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in more than 200 years. Only 18 women have faced execution nationwide in that stretch of time.
The governor's rejection leaves Pike's fate in the hands of the Supreme Court, with little time left before Wednesday. For Slemmer's family, the decision closes off one more avenue that could have delayed punishment for a killing more than three decades old. Death penalty opponents watching the case see it as another instance of a governor declining to intervene despite a formal request.
A woman who was a teenager when she committed the crime now stands on the edge of becoming a historical footnote in Tennessee.