People gather March 4 during a Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn., ahead of the scheduled Sept. 30 execution of Christa Pike.
George Walker IV/AP
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George Walker IV/AP
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Christa Pike was 18 when she killed a classmate in a jealous rage and became one of the youngest women to be sent to death row. Now 50, she is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday in what would be the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in 200 years.
Pike and her boyfriend were convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at the Knoxville Job Corps. Prosecutors said Pike feared Slemmer was a romantic rival and lured her to a secluded area where she and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer. The case received attention due to the brutality of the murder, the ages of those involved, and the fact that a satanic symbol was carved into the victim’s body.
Pike does not deny his guilt, but his lawyers and supporters argue that a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at this age by a teenager with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect. Slemmer’s mother wants lethal injection to continue, saying she waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced Monday that he would not issue clemency. Pike’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to stay the execution.
Clemency plea highlights Pike’s traumatic past
Pike’s lawyers said she had an exceptionally traumatic and abusive childhood.
FILE – This undated photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Corrections shows Christa Pike.
Tennessee Department of Correction/via AP
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Tennessee Department of Correction/via AP
Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike was sexually abused from a young age and was raped when she was 11 and 17 years old. He said Pike’s lawyers during the criminal phase of his trial failed to present to the jury what he considered crucial information about his past or argue that his age should be taken into consideration.
Pike was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pike told police she initially wanted to fight Slemmer, but ended up killing her in a frenzied attack. In his request for clemency, Pike’s lawyers said his untreated mental illness and history made it impossible for him to “put the brakes on.”
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old. It took me many years to realize the severity of what I had done. Even longer to come to terms with how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, their sister, their friend. It sickens me now to think that I had the capacity to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a statement included in his clemency petition.
Ferrell said more is known today about adolescent brain development and that Pike’s death sentence is an exception. He noted that Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole because of his age. He was denied parole last year. A third teenager admitted to being an accomplice and received probation.
In the modern era of the death penalty, Ferrell said, other 18-year-olds on death row in Tennessee have since had their sentences reduced.
The Death Penalty Information Center said 275 people have been executed nationwide for crimes they committed when they were 18, 19 or 20 in the modern era of the death penalty, but death sentences for people in that age range have become increasingly rare.
“If Christa Pike were put on trial today, I do not believe that a jury knowing about the sexual abuse and neglect she suffered as a child would sentence her to death,” said Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
Victim’s mother wants execution to take place
Speaking by phone from Florida, Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, also pointed out her daughter’s age and said Slemmer never had the chance to grow up.
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” Martinez said.
Martinez said her daughter volunteers for the Special Olympics, loves roller skating and wants to pursue a career in IT.
“She was laid back. At first, she was a computer enthusiast. She and my husband were constantly building and tearing down computers,” Martinez said. “She trusted everyone, and that was her downfall.”
She said her daughter called her from Job Corps the night of the murder, but the call was cut off due to poor reception. When Martinez called back, her daughter was already out.
“There’s not a day or a minute that goes by that I don’t think about Colleen. The holidays are the worst. Colleen’s birthday was last week. She would have been 51,” Martinez said.
The murder shook the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large piece of asphalt. Elements of the crime fueled fears of Satan worship during the “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s and 1990s. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, admitted that it was he who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism, into her body.
Executions of female inmates are rare in Tennessee and across the country
If Pike’s execution goes ahead as planned, it would be the first execution of a woman in Tennessee since 1820, Maher said.
Executions of female inmates are also rare in the United States. Since 1976, 18 women have been executed in the country, representing about 1 percent of all executions, according to the center.
Most recently, Missouri executed Amber McLaughlin, a transgender woman, in 2023 for a 2003 murder, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the United States. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government put a female inmate to death. Georgia executed a woman in 2015.
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