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Published 13:44 24 Jul 2026 GMT
The execution date for a death row inmate set to become the first woman killed by a US state in 200 years has been set.
Christa Gail Pike, the only woman currently on Tennessee's death row, is due to be executed on September 30, 2026.
The 50-year-old was sentenced to death in 1996 after she, her boyfriend Tiddell Shipp, and friend Shadolla Peterson were convicted of murdering 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in a case that became known locally as the "Job Corps Murder".
Pike and Slemmer were both enrolled in a Knoxville job-training program for troubled teens.
Prosecutors argued Pike believed Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend.
According to court filings and trial testimony, Pike struck Slemmer with a piece of asphalt before dragging her into nearby woods, torturing her and slitting her throat with a box cutter.
She was also accused of keeping a piece of Slemmer's skull as a souvenir following the killing.
Nearly three decades later, Pike remains on death row.
In January, Pike filed a lawsuit against Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, and the wardens of Riverbend Maximum Security Prison and Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.
Her legal challenge centers on Tennessee's revised execution protocol, introduced in December 2024, which replaced the previous three-drug cocktail with a single dose of pentobarbital to induce respiratory and cardiac arrest, per Nashville Banner.
Pike claims the method is unconstitutional and especially dangerous because of what court filings describe as her "unique medical conditions." According to the filing, lethal injection can trigger flash pulmonary edema, a condition that may create the sensation of drowning.
Her attorneys say Pike suffers from thrombocytopenia, a blood disorder, as well as bipolar disorder, PTSD, and veins that make needle insertion difficult.
Her attorneys argue pentobarbital could trigger an especially severe reaction.
The lawsuit alleges: "This is death by drowning on one's own blood," adding that the execution method is "very likely to result in unnecessary and superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace in violation of the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution."
Pike's legal team also argues the state's execution process lacks transparency.
According to the lawsuit, Tennessee's protocol is "plagued with the same issues that have marked botched executions for decades: secrecy, intentional omission, inattention to detail, and untrained and unlicensed prison personnel attempting to fill a medical role."
The filing also states that the state should have procedures in place to provide life-saving medical treatment if death has not occurred within five minutes.
The challenge comes less than a year after Tennessee executed Byron Black in August 2025.
Black, who had an implanted defibrillator, also challenged the state's execution protocol before his death.
Witnesses reported hearing him groan: "Oh, it's hurting so bad."
His attorney later claimed Black had been "tortured" during the execution.
Pike's lawsuit also claims that the execution protocol infringes on her religious rights.
The filing declares that the inmate is a practicing Buddhist, and the state's alternative-method requirement "violates her rights to conscience and/or to the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment".
The lawsuit further states that proposing another method of execution conflicts with her "sincerely held religious beliefs against participating in any process leading to her own death".
In addition to this, the filing claims restrictions on spiritual advisers during executions interfere with her ability to practice her religion.
While Pike's legal challenge continues, Slemmer's family has maintained that the death sentence should be carried out.
Her mother, May Martinez, has repeatedly said she wants justice for her daughter and hopes no other parent has to endure the pain her family has experienced.
"Justice has to serve. It cannot go on like this," she said. "I’m just hoping Tennessee does what they’re supposed to do.
"To keep fighting for their child if it happens and see justice for Christa Pike to be put to death. To finally stop this so no other parent has to feel this pain and hurt everyday like I do cause everyday, birthdays, anything, it’s hard to deal with. It really is," Martinez added.
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Published 16:29 30 Mar 2026 GMT
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Published 14:20 03 Oct 2025 GMT
Published 11:42 22 Apr 2026 GMT
Christa Gail Pike is set to become the first woman to be executed in the US in over two centuries.
The felon is the only woman on death row in Tennessee, after being convicted of a murder so gruesome that it still sends chills down the spines of those familiar with the case.
Pike was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer on January 12, 1995, when she was just 18.
The horrific murder took place in a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus, as the teenagers were part of the Knoxville Job Corps program.
Pike had become jealous of her boyfriend at the time, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, as she thought Slemmer was interested in him.
As a result, she would murder her classmate with a box cutter, a cleaver, and a piece of asphalt in an extremely disturbing crime.
Despite facing death in less than six months, Pike filed a lawsuit in the Davidson County Chancery Court, challenging the state's lethal injection protocol.
Her legal team has claimed that the method could cause excessive pain and violate her constitutional rights, while also arguing that her medical condition, thrombocytosis (a blood-clotting condition), could lead to complications.
They also add that her Buddhist beliefs prevent her from choosing electrocution as an alternative, though she pushed for this method back in 2002 before changing her mind.
Tennessee's new execution protocol relies on pentobarbital, which induces respiratory and cardiac arrest, instead of relying on the former three-drug cocktail.
Pike has argued that the state's limitation on clergy, which excludes her Buddhist spiritual advisor, limits her “sincerely held religious belief of Buddhism,” and violates her First Amendment rights as it “burdens” her right to free exercise of religion.
The counsel for Pike explained the three reasons behind her lawsuit to the Nashville Banner, saying: “First, given Christa’s unique medical conditions, we have serious reservations about the State of Tennessee’s ability to prevent a torturous execution.
"Second, the State’s protocol fails to make any contingency plans for when things go wrong.
"Finally, requiring a prisoner to select electrocution to avoid being isolated in the final weeks of their life is particularly cruel and arbitrary — especially for a prisoner like Christa, who was forced to live in solitary confinement for over 25 years and suffers from severe mental illness.”
Pike is set to be executed on September 30, 2026, becoming the only person executed in the state for a crime committed at age 18, 19, or 20 in the modern death penalty era.
The suit also details that Pike suffers from several conditions, including: "Bipolar disorder, PTSD, hyperlipidemia, and 'small veins that make insertion of a needle difficult'."
They claim that due to her conditions, "there is a substantial risk that [Pike] will experience unnecessary superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace."
Court records reveal that Pike killed Slemmer after suspecting that she had developed feelings for her boyfriend, using a box cutter to cut her, before striking the teen with a cleaver and crushing her skull with a piece of asphalt.
She wasn't alone, as Pike was joined by her boyfriend, Shipp, and her friend, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, in carrying out the evil act.
A pentagram was also carved into Slemmer's chest, as Pike and boyfriend Shipp had developed an interest in the occult and devil worship.
Pike even kept a piece of Slemmer's skull, showing it off around school before the three were arrested in just 36 hours.
According to CBS News, a groundskeeper found Slemmer's body and said that she was "so badly beaten that he had first mistaken [her body] for the corpse of an animal."
Pike admitted that she continued to be violent even when Slemmer "begged" her to stop.
A University of Tennessee police officer testified that Pike returned to the scene after the body was found and "seemed amused", noting that "she was giggling," according to a report from USA Today.
Despite their involvement in the crime, Shipp was handed a life sentence, while Peterson was given probation for testifying against Pike and Shipp.
Pike was the only one who was capitally charged, with her legal team continuing to argue that her age at the time, history of abuse, and mental health conditions should exempt her from execution.
"Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect," her defense team said.
"With time and treatment, she has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime."
Pike even apologised in a letter, saying: "I was a mentally ill 18 yr. old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I'd done. Even more to accept how many lives I effected [sic].
"I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime."
Her team claims that if she were tried today, she would not be sentenced to death.
Published 09:52 24 Dec 2025 GMT
Tennessee is preparing to carry out its first execution of a woman in more than two centuries after the state Supreme Court scheduled the execution of Christa Gail Pike, the only woman currently on Tennessee’s death row.
According to court filings dated September 30, Pike, now 49, is set to be executed on September 30, 2026.
If the sentence is carried out, she would become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1820 and just the fourth woman executed by the state in its history.
Records from the Death Penalty Information Center show that the last woman executed in Tennessee was Martin Eve, who was hanged in 1820 for her role as an accessory to murder.
Pike was convicted for the killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in January 1995, a crime that remains one of the most notorious in the state’s history.
At the time, Pike was 18 and enrolled in the Knoxville Job Corps, a federal job training program.
Prosecutors said Pike became consumed by jealousy after beginning a relationship with fellow student Tadaryl Shipp, believing Slemmer was romantically interested in him.
On January 12, 1995, Pike lured Slemmer to a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus.
Court records detail an exceptionally violent attack in which Pike used a box cutter and a meat cleaver, carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s body, and ultimately crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt.
Prosecutors also said Pike later kept part of the victim’s skull as a trophy.
In 1996, Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
Shipp received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, while a third accomplice testified against Pike and was granted probation.
Pike’s violent behavior continued behind bars.
In 2004, she was convicted of attempting to strangle another inmate, resulting in an additional 25-year sentence added to her existing punishment, according to the Nashville Banner.
For nearly three decades, Pike’s legal team has pursued appeals, arguing that her execution would be unconstitutional due to her mental health history and the abuse she suffered as a child.
Her attorneys say she endured years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect and was not properly diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder until years after her conviction.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Pike’s legal team said that with treatment and time, she has shown remorse and personal growth, stating: "Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect … With time and treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime."
Tennessee resumed executions after a multi-year pause to review lethal injection procedures, carrying out its most recent execution in 2025.
Pike’s scheduled execution has already reignited debate, with supporters emphasizing the brutality of the crime and opponents calling for clemency based on her mental health and traumatic upbringing.
Unless her remaining appeals are successful, Pike is set to become a grim historical milestone for Tennessee more than 200 years after the state last executed a woman.
Published 15:55 12 Jun 2026 GMT
The only woman on Tennessee’s death row is challenging the state’s execution protocol.
In January, Christa Gail Pike, who was convicted of a brutal 1995 murder, filed a lawsuit against Tennessee officials arguing that the state’s planned use of lethal injection violates her constitutional rights and religious beliefs.
Pike is suing Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada, and the wardens of Riverbend Maximum Security Prison and Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.
Pike was convicted in 1996 alongside her boyfriend, Tiddell Shipp, and friend Shadolla Peterson for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in a case that became known locally as the "Job Corps Murder".
Both Pike and Slemmer were participants in a Knoxville job-training program for troubled teens. Prosecutors argued that Pike believed Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend.
According to court filings and trial testimony, Pike struck Slemmer with a piece of asphalt, dragged her into the woods, tortured her, and slit her throat with a box cutter.
Pike was also accused of keeping a piece of Slemmer’s skull as a souvenir after the killing.
She was sentenced to death and remains on death row nearly three decades later.
At the center of Pike’s lawsuit is Tennessee’s revised lethal injection protocol, which took effect in December 2024.
The state now uses a single drug, pentobarbital, to induce respiratory and cardiac arrest rather than the three-drug cocktail previously used between 2018 and 2020, per Nashville Banner.
The prisoner argues the protocol is unconstitutional and particularly dangerous because of what the lawsuit describes as her "unique medical conditions".
The filing claims lethal injection can trigger flash pulmonary edema, a condition that may create the sensation of drowning.
Per the document, Pike suffers from thrombocytopenia, a blood disorder, along with bipolar disorder, PTSD, and veins that make needle insertion difficult.
Her attorneys argue that the use of pentobarbital could cause an especially severe reaction.
The lawsuit alleges: "This is death by drowning on one's own blood," and that the execution method is "very likely to result in unnecessary and superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace in violation of the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Constitution."
The death row inmate's attorneys also slammed what they describe as a lack of transparency surrounding the protocol.
The lawsuit claims the state's protocol is "plagued with the same issues that have marked botched executions for decades: secrecy, intentional omission, inattention to detail, and untrained and unlicensed prison personnel attempting to fill a medical role."
The filing further argues that Tennessee should have a plan in place and that life-saving medical procedures should be administered if death has not occurred within five minutes.
The challenge comes less than a year after Tennessee executed Byron Black in August 2025. Black, who had an implanted defibrillator, also challenged the state's protocol before his execution.
According to witnesses, Black reportedly groaned: "Oh, it's hurting so bad."
His attorney later claimed he had been "tortured" during the execution.
Pike's lawsuit also raises objections based on her faith.
Per the filing, the inmate is a practicing Buddhist, and an alternative-method requirement "violates her rights to conscience and/or to the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment."
The suit also states that proposing another method of execution conflicts with her "sincerely held religious beliefs against participating in any process leading to her own death."
In addition to this, the film claims restrictions on spiritual advisers during executions interfere with her ability to practice her religion.
As Pike's legal challenge moves through the courts, Slemmer's family has continued to call for the sentence to be carried out.
Her mother, May Martinez, has repeatedly said she wants justice for her daughter and hopes that no other parent experiences the pain her family has endured.
If Tennessee proceeds with the execution on September 30, Pike will become the first woman executed by the state since 1820, marking the first such execution in Tennessee in more than two centuries.
A US state is set to execute its first woman in over 200 years within the next six months.
Christa Gail Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, was convicted of a murder so violent it has continued to shock the state for decades.
Pike was just 18 when she brutally killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer on January 12, 1995, after luring her to a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus.
The two were part of the Knoxville Job Corps program, where Pike had become jealous over her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, believing Slemmer was interested in him.
According to court records, Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter, struck her with a cleaver, and crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt.
A pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s chest.
A groundskeeper later discovered her body and recalled that the teen victim was "so badly beaten that he had first mistaken [her body] for the corpse of an animal," per CBS News.
After the gruesome murder, Pike collected a fragment of Slemmer’s skull, showing it off to classmates and bragging about the killing. She admitted to continuing the violence even when Slemmer "begged" her to stop.
A University of Tennessee police officer testified that Pike even returned to the scene after the body was found and "seemed amused," adding: "She was giggling," USA Today reported.
Pike, who just turned 50 on March 10, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death. She is set to be executed by lethal injection about six months from now, on September 30.
Meanwhile, her boyfriend received life with the possibility of parole, and another accomplice was given probation.
Her case has moved through decades of appeals, with her legal team arguing that her age at the time, history of abuse, and mental health conditions should exempt her from execution.
"Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect," her defense team stated. "With time and treatment, she has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime."
Pike herself has expressed regret in a letter, writing: "I was a mentally ill 18 yr. old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I'd done. Even more to accept how many lives I effected [sic].
"I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime."
Her attorneys also claim that if she were tried today, she would not receive the death penalty.
In January, Pike’s legal team filed a lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s lethal injection method.
They contended it could cause excessive pain and violate her constitutional rights.
They also argued that her medical condition, thrombocytosis, could lead to complications and that her Buddhist beliefs stop her from choosing electrocution as an alternative.
In addition to this, her lawyers also raised concerns about the state’s new execution protocol, citing previous cases where inmates appeared to suffer during lethal injections.
However, the state has pushed back strongly. In a filing, officials stated that "the Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death" and that "some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution - no matter how humane."
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti also added: "Pike has offered nothing but speculation that the well-established, constitutional lethal injection method poses any unique risk in her case...We wish Pike’s commitment to the sanctity of life had arrived in time to save Colleen Slemmer."
The case continues to spark strong reactions from both sides. Supporters of Pike point to her traumatic childhood and mental illness, while others, including Slemmer’s family, have long called for justice to be carried out.
The late victim's mother, May Martinez, has spent years fighting for closure. "My heart breaks every single day because I keep reliving it and reliving it, and I can't no more, and I want this to happen before I die," she said.
"There's not a day [that] goes by that I don't think about Colleen or how she died and how rough it was," Martinez added. "I just want Christa down so I can end it, relieve my daughter, so she finally can be resting."
Tennessee is preparing to carry out its first execution of a woman in more than two centuries after the state’s Supreme Court officially scheduled the death of Christa Gail Pike, the only woman currently on Tennessee’s death row.
According to court documents filed on September 30, the State of Tennessee requested an execution date for Pike, now 49, which has been set for September 30, 2026. If carried out, Pike would become the first woman executed in the state since 1820, and only the fourth in Tennessee history.
The Death Penalty Information Center notes that the last recorded execution of a woman in Tennessee was Martin Eve in 1820, who was hanged for being an accessory to murder.
Pike was just 18 years old when she committed one of the most brutal murders in Tennessee’s history. On Jan. 12, 1995, she lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer into a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus in Knoxville.
Both women were part of the Knoxville Job Corps, a career-training program, when Pike began dating 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp. Pike reportedly grew jealous and convinced herself that Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend, the Daily Mail reports.
Court records reveal chilling details of what followed: Pike slashed Slemmer’s throat with a box cutter, struck her with a meat cleaver, carved a pentagram into her chest, and ultimately crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt. She later kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy and showed it off to classmates.
In 1996, Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Shipp received life with the possibility of parole, while a third accomplice, who testified against Pike, was given probation.
Pike’s violence didn’t stop in prison. In 2004, she was convicted of attempting to strangle a fellow inmate, earning an additional 25 years on top of her death sentence, Fox News details.
For nearly three decades, Pike’s case has moved through a lengthy appeals process.
Her attorneys continue to argue against execution, pointing to her age at the time of the crime, as well as a history of childhood trauma, abuse, and untreated mental illness.
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” her defense team stated, via CBS News. “With time and treatment, she has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime.”
Psychological evaluations later diagnosed Pike with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, conditions her legal team argues should exempt her from capital punishment.
Tennessee has a long history of using the death penalty, though executions have slowed significantly in recent years. After a three-year pause to review lethal injection drug testing, the state resumed capital punishment, carrying out its most recent execution in 2025.
Pike’s scheduled execution in 2026 has already sparked widespread debate. Supporters of the death penalty point to the brutality of her crime, while opponents highlight her traumatic upbringing and mental health issues as reasons for clemency.
Unless her appeals succeed, Pike is set to become a grim historical first for Tennessee in more than 200 years.
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