Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Says 'Biggest Punishment' Was Being Deprived of Human Contact While Locked in Cell 23 Hours a Day

As Christa Pike awaits her execution, the convicted killer is complaining that she was robbed of human contact while isolated on Tennessee's death row, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

The vicious killer has never denied brutally murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995, but she's now speaking out about her lonely decades behind bars as she faces becoming the first woman Tennessee has executed in more than 200 years.

"The biggest punishment was taking me away from people and human contact," Pike lamented to the New York Times.

Pike painted a grim picture of her years in isolation, likening the cramped conditions to being locked inside a bathroom with little more than a meal tray, television and radio for company. For years, she reportedly spent 23 hours a day confined to her cell.

Pike's violent streak followed her behind bars, and she later proved that being around others wasn't such a good idea.

On August 24, 2001, during a fire evacuation at the Tennessee Prison for Women, she was placed in a recreation cage with fellow inmates Patricia Jones and Natasha Cornett.

After Jones and Cornett began arguing, Pike suddenly attacked Jones from behind, wrapping a heavy shoelace around her neck and choking her until she lost consciousness.

The prison assault later resulted in Pike being convicted of attempted first-degree premeditated murder. After the attack, prison doctors diagnosed the death row inmate with bipolar disorder

Pike's lawyers insist her violent behavior is now firmly in the past, claiming she hasn't been disciplined for violence since receiving medication and undergoing therapy.

She has also turned to Buddhist meditation in recent years, which she claimed has helped her "train my chaotic mind" after decades of turmoil behind bars.

Pike was 18 years old when she and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, lured Slemmer into the woods near the University of Tennessee campus, where she was subjected to a horrific attack that included being beaten in the head with chunks of asphalt.

Two days later, she confessed to the crime after showing off a piece of Slemmer's skull she kept as a souvenir. It was later passed around as evidence at her trial, much to the horror of her victim's bereaved mother, May Martinez.

"I'm very remorseful now; I wasn't in the beginning when I first caught this charge. I didn't care what I had done." Pike told the Times about viciously killing Slemmer

"Over years of sitting in here with deep contemplation and reflection, I know and understand the life that I have taken and how much it matters, how much it means, how many effects she could have had on the world, just like the effects I could have on the world."

Pike's lawyers have been arguing that she should be allowed to serve out the rest of her life in prison due to her traumatic childhood and previously untreated mental health issues.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee remained unmoved, refusing on Monday, September 28, to step in and halt Pike's looming execution by commuting her sentence or granting her clemency.

"I don't think that someone should kill me to teach me that killing someone is wrong," Pike said of her upcoming execution by lethal injection, which is set for 10 am CST on Wednesday, September 30, at Nashville's Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

However, she has no sympathy from Martinez, who told the outlet, "Nobody could ever, ever convince me she's changed."