Tennessee is due to execute Christa Pike on Wednesday, September 30, in what would be the state’s first execution of a woman in more than 200 years.
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she was convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Knoxville Job Corps training programme. The execution is scheduled to take place at 10am local time at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. ([tn.gov](https://www.tn.gov/correction/news/2026/9/14/execution-advisory–media-guidelines—christa-pike–261368.html?utm_source=openai))
The Tennessee Department of Correction lists Pike as the only woman currently on the state’s death row. She has been held under a death sentence since March 1996, after being convicted of first-degree murder in Slemmer’s killing. ([tn.gov](https://www.tn.gov/correction/about-us/executions/death-row-facts.html?utm_source=openai))
Prosecutors said Pike viewed Slemmer as a romantic rival and lured her to a wooded area with her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, on January 12, 1995.
Court records say Pike cut Slemmer’s throat with a box cutter, struck her with a cleaver, carved a pentagram into her chest and crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt. The records also state that she kept part of the victim’s skull as a souvenir.
Pike admitted killing Slemmer in 1996. She has not disputed her guilt, but her lawyers have argued that execution is disproportionate for an offence committed when she was a teenager who had untreated mental illness and had suffered severe sexual abuse and neglect during childhood.
Her legal team has also challenged the method of execution, citing Pike’s diagnosis of thrombocytosis and warning that lethal injection could cause serious illness and unnecessary suffering. Her request to be hanged was rejected because hanging is no longer an approved method of execution in Tennessee.
Pike separately sought an all-female execution team, arguing that the involvement of men could trigger trauma linked to her history of sexual abuse, particularly if complications arose during the procedure.
The Tennessee Supreme Court rejected a request to halt the execution on September 23. Pike’s lawyers subsequently applied to the US Supreme Court for a stay, with the application submitted to Justice Brett Kavanaugh on September 25. ([pch.tncourts.gov](https://pch.tncourts.gov/CaseDetails.aspx?Number=True&id=80857&utm_source=openai))
Governor Bill Lee has also declined to intervene after considering Pike’s clemency request, leaving a court order setting September 30 as the execution date. ([reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/TennesseePolitics/comments/1wsl3yp/gov_lee_will_not_stop_christa_gail_pikes_execution/?utm_source=openai))
Tennessee’s uncertain history of executions of women
Official records of Tennessee’s earliest executions are incomplete. The state Department of Correction says executions before 1913 were carried out by hanging, but that records do not establish the names or number of people put to death during that period.
Historical research has suggested that an enslaved woman accused of killing her mistress was executed in Tennessee in 1819. Another account lists Eve Martin as having been hanged in 1820, although University of Tennessee researchers have said that record may have confused Martin with a murder victim.
If Pike’s execution goes ahead, she would be the first woman put to death by Tennessee since the early 19th century and only the fourth woman believed to have been executed in the state.
