The one lady on Tennessee’s dying row has been scheduled for execution greater than 30 years after she brutally killed a teenage romantic rival and confirmed off a bit of the sufferer’s cranium to schoolmates.
The Tennessee Supreme Courtroom scheduled the execution of 49-year-old Christa Gail Pike on Sept. 30, 2026. Pike was simply 18 years outdated when she and two others lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to the woods in Knoxville on Jan. 12, 1995, and carried out the assault that made nationwide headlines for its brutality.
When a groundskeeper discovered Slemmer’s physique the following day, the teenager had been crushed, stabbed, and bludgeoned, and had a pentagram carved into her chest, courtroom information say.
If Pike’s execution is carried out, she would turn into the primary lady executed in Tennessee in 200 years and simply the nineteenth lady executed in trendy U.S. historical past.
“That could be a very, very small quantity,” stated Robin Maher, govt director of the Washington, D.C.-based Loss of life Penalty Info Heart, a nonprofit that tracks using the dying penalty within the U.S. with out taking a place on it.
“Solely 18 ladies have been executed since 1976,” Maher added. “It is extraordinarily uncommon.”
Pike’s execution date has been set amid an increase in executions in 2025 and an growth of the execution strategies used. To date this 12 months, states have executed 34 inmates − a determine that hasn’t been seen in a decade − and one other 9 are scheduled to be put to dying.
This is what to know the case, and ladies on dying row within the U.S.
What was Christa Gail Pike convicted of?
Christa Gail Pike and Colleen Slemmer had been each college students on the Knoxville Job Corps, a career-training program, when Pike started relationship a 17-year-old boy in this system and later got here to concern that Slemmer was attempting to steal him, prosecutors advised jurors at trial.
Pike, a buddy and the boyfriend lured Slemmer away from the Job Corps heart and into the woods earlier than the assault, largely carried out by Pike over an hour-long interval on Jan. 12, 1995, in accordance with courtroom information.
Christa Gail Pike is pictured.
Pike later bragged about killing Slemmer, telling one other scholar on the heart that she had reduce {the teenager}’s throat six occasions with a field cutter, reduce her again with a meat cleaver, carved a pentagram into her brow and chest, and continued the violence regardless that Slemmer “begged” her to cease, in accordance with courtroom information.
Pike stated she had “thrown a big piece of asphalt on the sufferer’s head,” believed to be a deadly blow, and stored a cranium fragment, later exhibiting it off to fellow college students, courtroom information say.
Pike was convicted of first-degree homicide and sentenced to dying. Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was convicted of first-degree homicide, sentenced to life in jail and can turn into eligible for parole in November, in accordance with inmate information. Pike’s buddy, Shadolla Peterson − who prosecutors say stored watch in the course of the assault − testified towards Pike and was sentenced to probation.
What does Christa Gail Pike say in regards to the crime?
In a letter she wrote to The Tennessean − a part of the USA TODAY Community − Pike stated she takes accountability for the homicide and that she has “modified drastically” since she was a young person.
“Suppose again to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager. Nicely, mine occurred to be big, unforgettable and ruined numerous lives,” she wrote. “I used to be a mentally in poor health 18 yr. outdated child. It took me quite a few years to even notice the gravity of what I would executed. Much more to simply accept what number of lives I effected (sic). I took the life of somebody’s youngster, sister, buddy. It sickens me now to suppose that somebody as loving and compassionate as myself had the power to commit such a criminal offense.”
Pike spent 27 years in what her attorneys say was successfully solitary confinement as the one lady on Tennessee’s dying row earlier than she received the power to work together with different inmates throughout meals, lessons, and non secular providers.
Her attorneys argue that had Pike been tried at this time, she by no means would have gotten the dying penalty given her younger age and psychological well being struggles on the time of the crime. They consider she deserves life in jail with out the opportunity of parole as a substitute of the dying penalty.
Christa Pike, the one lady on Tennessee’s dying row, was convicted within the 1995 torture dying of fellow Knoxville Job Corps scholar Colleen Slemmer, 19.
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of bodily and sexual abuse and neglect,” her authorized workforce stated in a press release to USA TODAY. “With time and therapy for bipolar and post-traumatic stress issues, which weren’t recognized till years later, Christa has turn into a considerate lady with deep regret for her crime.”
To be taught extra about Pike, together with background about her childhood, go to right here.
Clemmer’s mom, Might Martinez, has been steadfast in her help of the dying penalty for Pike.
“I simply need Christa down so I can finish it, relieve my daughter, so she lastly might be resting,” Martinez advised WBIR-TV in 2021. “There’s not a day goes by that I do not take into consideration Colleen or how she died and the way tough it was.”
What number of ladies have been executed within the U.S.?
Simply 18 ladies have been executed within the U.S. since 1976, in comparison with 1,623 males, in accordance with the Loss of life Penalty Info Heart. Which means ladies signify simply 1% of all trendy U.S. executions.
Pike just isn’t solely the one lady on Tennessee’s dying row, however she’s amongst simply 48 feminine dying row inmates within the nation. That is in comparison with a male inhabitants slightly below 2,100 − roughly 2 p.c.
The final execution of a girl within the U.S. was that of Amber McClaughlin in 2023. McClaughlin, who was the primary transgender individual execution within the nation, was convicted as a person of raping and fatally stabbing 45-year-old Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003. Guenther was McLaughlin’s ex-girlfriend.
The final execution in Tennessee was that of Byron Black on Aug. 5 for the 1988 homicide of his girlfriend and her two younger daughters.
What number of ladies has Tennessee executed?
Citing the Loss of life Penalty Info Heart, Pike’s attorneys say that solely three ladies have ever been executed in Tennessee, with all of them occurring between 1807 and 1819.
They listing the hangings of three Black ladies in 1807, 1808 and 1819, although did not determine their crimes. Solely one of many ladies’s names is understood: that of Molly Holcomb in 1807. Two of them are listed as slaves by deathpenaltyusa.org, which names the crimes as homicide, although many slaves had been unjustly killed themselves over false accusations or for no cause in any respect.
Contributing: Evan Mealins, The Tennessean
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers executions for USA TODAY. Comply with her on X at @amandaleeusat.
This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Tennessee units Christa Pike’s execution 30 years after rival’s homicide
