A female death row inmate in Tennessee, Christa Gail Pike, is poised to become the first woman executed in the state in over two centuries. Pike, the solitary woman on Tennessee’s death row, was sentenced to death at 18 for the heinous murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The gruesome incident occurred when Pike and her then-boyfriend led Slemmer into the woods near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus.
During the attack, Pike viciously assaulted Slemmer, slicing her throat with a box cutter, striking her with a cleaver, carving a pentagram into her chest, and ultimately crushing her skull with a piece of asphalt. Subsequently, Pike kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a macabre keepsake. Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996, with the jury handing down a death sentence. Her accomplice, Tadaryl Shipp, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole. In 2004, Pike faced another conviction for attempting to strangle a fellow inmate, resulting in an additional 25-year sentence.
After nearly three decades on death row, Tennessee’s Supreme Court has now set an execution date for Pike, who is currently 49 years old. The execution is scheduled for September 30, 2026. If carried out, Pike will be the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1820 and only the fourth in the state’s history.
Pike’s legal team has argued that her youth, history of abuse, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder should exempt her from execution. They highlighted Pike’s troubled childhood marked by physical and sexual abuse and neglect. In a statement, Pike’s attorneys emphasized her transformation into a remorseful individual over time.
Reflecting on her actions, Pike expressed deep regret in a letter to The Tennessean, acknowledging the devastating impact of her crime. She described herself as a mentally ill teenager at the time of the offense and expressed profound remorse for the lives she affected. Pike also compared her heinous act to a monumental and irreversible mistake.
The last woman executed in the US was Amber McLaughlin, who received a lethal injection in Missouri in January 2023. Since the modern application of the death penalty in 1976, records indicate that 18 women have been executed in the United States.
