Christa Pike seeks firing squad, not lethal injection: Behind the scenes of US executions | Death penalty news

Tennessee is set to execute a woman Wednesday for the first time in more than 200 years, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-minute attempt to stop it.

Christa Pike, 50, who was convicted of torturing and killing a classmate when she was 18, was scheduled to die by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but according to a New York Post report, she instead asked to be shot by an all-female firing squad.

So why does she fear lethal injection, and how does the United States put people to death? Here’s what you need to know:

What was Christa Pike convicted of?

Pike was convicted of murdering another young woman she considered a romantic rival more than 30 years ago.

In January 1995, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, 17, and Shadolla Peterson, 18, lured Colleen Slemmer, 19, to a wooded area, tortured and killed her. All four were students at a Job Corps career center in Knoxville.

The case generated enormous public interest, especially after it was revealed that the attackers had carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest, which Shipp later admitted to having carved. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull.

Pike and Shipp confessed and were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996. Pike was sentenced to death; Shipp was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

“Christa is a 50-year-old woman who is remorseful and understands her actions,” her lawyers wrote.

Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, spoke in favor of the execution.

Why doesn’t Pike want a lethal injection?

Her legal team and trauma experts say it could force her to relive the abuse she suffered as a child.

Her request for clemency alleges childhood violence, neglect and sexual abuse, including rape when she was 11 and 17 years old. She also cites her diagnoses of bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Experts on sexual violence and trauma say the procedures surrounding lethal injection would likely trigger severe flashbacks of the abuse.

Her legal team also argues that she has small veins and a blood problem that could make it difficult to put in an IV line, a claim disputed by the state.

In May, Tennessee prison officials abandoned the execution of another prisoner, Tony Carruthers, after failing to find a suitable vein.

According to the New York Post, Pike’s lawyers said she also feared a painful death by lethal injection.

The newspaper reported that she wanted to be shot by an all-female firing squad, with members of Slemmer’s family among the witnesses.

Tennessee is not one of five states that permits the firing squad.

In court in August, his lawyers proposed hanging, noting that it was the method Tennessee last used to execute a woman.

The state objected, saying Tennessee had neither the equipment nor the legal authority to carry it out. The judge sided with the state but allowed the possibility of an all-female execution team.

Tennessee also allows prisoners whose crimes predate January 1999 to choose the electric chair; Pike’s crime took place in 1995.

What do his lawyers argue?

That she shouldn’t be executed at all.

Pike’s petition asked the governor to commute his sentence to life without parole. He pointed out that his mother drank heavily during pregnancy, which harmed Pike’s brain development and impulse control.

“The 18-year-old girl who suffers from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists,” her lawyers wrote.

She would be the only person to be executed in modern-day Tennessee for a crime committed when she was a teenager.

His lawyer, Stephen Ferrell, said scientists now understood much more about adolescent brain development and that his sentence was aberrant.

Governor Bill Lee, however, refused any pardon. A panel of United Nations human rights experts called for his sentence to be commuted.

Why is this case so rare?

The United States almost never executes women.

Women account for 18 of the 1,683 people executed since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to be reinstated in 1976, or just over 1 percent.

Tennessee had executed just 17 people in that period before Wednesday, with Pike the only woman on death row.

If the execution goes ahead, it will be the first execution of a woman in the state since 1820, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

What are the rules in different states?

Twenty-seven states apply the death penalty, but four have suspended its application.

Lethal injection is authorized in all states where the death penalty is provided; electrocution in nine states; new gas; and the firing squad in five. In Idaho, firing squad became the primary method in July 2026.

Tennessee allows lethal injections and electrocution. If both are found unconstitutional, his law allows any constitutional method.

Since 2008, the Supreme Court has required inmates challenging a method of execution to identify a feasible alternative that significantly reduces the risk of severe pain.

In June, a federal judge permanently barred Alabama from executing Jeffery Lee with nitrogen gas, ruling that it violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

She found the proposed alternative, the firing squad, feasible.

What are the different methods?

The United States has used five: lethal injection, electrocution, gaslighting, firing squad, and hanging.

Lethal injection has been used in 1,491 executions since 1976, while electrocution has been used 163 times. The gas has been used 19 times, with Alabama and Louisiana being the only states to have used it.

During nitrogen executions, a mask is placed over the prisoner’s face and the air they breathe is replaced with pure nitrogen.

The firing squad, the method Pike reportedly wanted, has only been used six times since 1976.

Hanging, once the primary method, is currently not permitted in any state.

Why are execution methods so controversial?

Because none of them work reliably as expected, many experts say.

The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment.” But the Supreme Court has made challenges to the death penalty more difficult to obtain. He ruled that it was not enough to prove that a method was likely to cause serious pain; prisoners must also identify a feasible alternative that significantly reduces this risk.

Lethal injection depends on the discovery of a usable vein. If the drugs instead enter a muscle or the needle becomes clogged, the prisoner may suffer extreme pain.

In 2017, legal challenges in Arkansas cited botched lethal injections in Oklahoma and Arizona.

Meanwhile, the electric chair doesn’t always kill at first shock. If the prisoner’s heart is still beating, another shock should be applied.

An autopsy of Mikal Mahdi, executed by firing squad in South Carolina in 2025, found that only two of three bullets hit him, and none hit his heart.

Miscalculated hanging can result in death by slow strangulation.

Witnesses said Kenneth Smith, the first person executed with nitrogen, appeared conscious and writhing for several minutes.