Tennessee is set to execute a woman for the first time in over 200 years. What did she do?
Christa Gail Pike is pictured.
Tennessee has scheduled the execution of Christa Gail Pike, the state’s only female death row inmate, more than three decades after she brutally murdered a teenage rival and displayed a piece of the victim’s skull to classmates.
The Tennessee Supreme Court set Pike’s execution for September 30, 2026. Pike was 18 years old when she and two accomplices lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into the woods near Knoxville on January 12, 1995, committing a crime that shocked the nation.
According to court records, Slemmer was beaten, stabbed, and bludgeoned, with a pentagram carved into her chest. A groundskeeper discovered her body the next day.
If carried out, Pike would become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years and only the 19th woman executed in modern U.S. history.
“That is a very, very small number,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks executions in the U.S. “Only 18 women have been executed since 1976. It’s extremely rare.”
Pike’s execution comes amid a rise in executions in 2025. So far, states have executed 34 inmates—a figure not seen in a decade—and nine more are scheduled for execution this year.
The Crime
Pike and Slemmer were students at the Knoxville Job Corps, a career-training program. Pike began dating a 17-year-old boy in the program and feared Slemmer was trying to steal him, prosecutors said.
Pike, her boyfriend, and a friend lured Slemmer into the woods, where Pike carried out the attack over roughly an hour. Court records detail horrific acts, including multiple cuts to Slemmer’s throat, back, and chest, carving a pentagram, and bludgeoning her with a piece of asphalt, which Pike later claimed was fatal. She reportedly kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull and showed it to fellow students.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, received a life sentence and will be eligible for parole in November. Pike’s accomplice Shadolla Peterson, who testified against her, received probation.
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Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, was convicted in the 1995 torture death of fellow Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer, 19.
Pike’s Statement
In a letter to The Tennessean, Pike took responsibility for the murder and said she had changed since her teenage years. She described herself at 18 as “mentally ill” and acknowledged the lasting impact of her actions.
Pike spent 27 years in what her lawyers describe as solitary confinement before winning the right to interact with other inmates. Her legal team argues that her young age, mental health struggles, and history of abuse would likely have spared her the death penalty if she were tried today.
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” her attorneys said. “With treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, she has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime.”
Victim’s Family Seeks Justice
Colleen Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has consistently supported the death penalty for Pike. “I just want Christa down so I can end it, relieve my daughter, so she finally can be resting,” Martinez said in 2021.
Women on Death Row
Since 1976, only 18 women have been executed in the U.S., compared with 1,623 men. Women represent about 1% of modern executions. Pike is one of just 48 women on death row nationwide, compared with nearly 2,100 men.
The last execution of a woman in the U.S. occurred in 2023, when Amber McClaughlin was executed for the 2003 murder of her ex-girlfriend. The last execution in Tennessee was Byron Black in 1988.
Tennessee has executed only three women in its history, all between 1807 and 1819, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. One woman, Molly Holcomb, was hanged in 1807. The other two were enslaved women executed under disputed circumstances.
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