The one lady on Tennessee’s loss of life row has been scheduled for execution greater than 30 years after she brutally killed a teenage romantic rival and confirmed off a chunk 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 previous 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 out to be the primary lady executed in Tennessee in 200 years and simply the nineteenth lady executed in fashionable U.S. historical past.
“That could be a very, very small quantity,” mentioned Robin Maher, govt director of the Washington, D.C.-based Demise Penalty Data Middle, a nonprofit that tracks using the loss of life 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. Thus far 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 loss of life.
Here is what to know the case, and girls on loss of life row within the U.S.
What was Christa Gail Pike convicted of?
Christa Gail Pike and Colleen Slemmer have been each college students on the Knoxville Job Corps, a career-training program, when Pike started courting a 17-year-old boy in this system and later got here to concern that Slemmer was attempting to steal him, prosecutors instructed jurors at trial.
Pike, a pal 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, based on courtroom information.
Christa Gail Pike is pictured.
Pike later bragged about killing Slemmer, telling one other pupil on the heart that she had lower {the teenager}’s throat six instances with a field cutter, lower 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, based on courtroom information.
Pike mentioned 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 displaying it off to fellow college students, courtroom information say.
Pike was convicted of first-degree homicide and sentenced to loss of life. Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was convicted of first-degree homicide, sentenced to life in jail and can turn out to be eligible for parole in November, based on inmate information. Pike’s pal, Shadolla Peterson − who prosecutors say stored watch in the course of the assault − testified in opposition to 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 mentioned she takes duty 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. Effectively, mine occurred to be large, unforgettable and ruined numerous lives,” she wrote. “I used to be a mentally in poor health 18 yr. previous child. It took me quite a few years to even understand the gravity of what I would completed. Much more to simply accept what number of lives I effected (sic). I took the life of somebody’s baby, sister, pal. 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 loss of life row earlier than she received the power to work together with different inmates throughout meals, lessons, and spiritual companies.
Her attorneys argue that had Pike been tried at the moment, she by no means would have gotten the loss of life 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 potential for parole as an alternative of the loss of life penalty.
Christa Pike, the one lady on Tennessee’s loss of life row, was convicted within the 1995 torture loss of life of fellow Knoxville Job Corps pupil Colleen Slemmer, 19.
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of bodily and sexual abuse and neglect,” her authorized group mentioned in an announcement to USA TODAY. “With time and remedy for bipolar and post-traumatic stress issues, which weren’t recognized till years later, Christa has turn out to be a considerate lady with deep regret for her crime.”
To study 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 loss of life penalty for Pike.
“I simply need Christa down so I can finish it, relieve my daughter, so she lastly might be resting,” Martinez instructed 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, based on the Demise Penalty Data Middle. Which means ladies signify simply 1% of all fashionable U.S. executions.
Pike is just not solely the one lady on Tennessee’s loss of life row, however she’s amongst simply 48 feminine loss of life row inmates within the nation. That is in comparison with a male inhabitants slightly below 2,100 − roughly 2 %.
The final execution of a lady within the U.S. was that of Amber McClaughlin in 2023. McClaughlin, who was the primary transgender particular person executed 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 Demise Penalty Data Middle, Pike’s attorneys say that solely three ladies have ever been executed in Tennessee, with all of them taking place between 1807 and 1819.
They checklist the hangings of three Black ladies in 1807, 1808 and 1819, although did not establish their crimes. Solely one of many ladies’s names is thought: 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 have been unjustly killed themselves over false accusations or for no motive 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
