Nationwide — Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, is scheduled to be executed on September 30, which would make her the first woman put to death by the state in more than 200 years. As the execution date approaches, youth advocates and her legal team are asking Gov. Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison without parole.
She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. The two were students at the Knoxville Job Corps Center. Court records say Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and another student, Shadolla Peterson, attacked Slemmer after Pike believed she was interested in Shipp. The attack involved repeated beatings and cutting, and the body was later found on the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus.
Pike was 18 when the killing happened and received the death penalty in 1996. Her attorneys now argue that her age and childhood history deserve greater consideration. They say she experienced severe abuse while growing up and that important information about her background was not fully presented when jurors decided her sentence. Her clemency petition also points to evidence involving trauma and mental health problems, as well as the effects of spending decades in prison.
According to WLBT, youth advocates held a press conference in Nashville this week and asked Lee to commute her sentence. They said decades of research have changed what is known about childhood trauma and how severe adversity can affect a person later in life. Their argument is not that Pike should avoid responsibility for Slemmer’s death, but that her sentence should be reconsidered in light of what is now known about her childhood and development.
Her attorneys have also pointed to the sentences given to the other two people involved in Slemmer’s killing. Shipp was 17 at the time and could not receive the death penalty because of his age. He received a life sentence and is now eligible for parole. Peterson, who was 18, testified against Pike and Shipp and received probation. Pike’s legal team says Tennessee has sentenced eight people to death for crimes committed at age 18 in the modern era, but the death sentences of the other seven were eventually overturned or reduced.
The Tennessee Supreme Court set Pike’s execution for September 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. State officials have scheduled the execution for 10 a.m. Central Time. The case has also drawn international attention, with U.N. human rights experts calling on Tennessee and the United States to halt the execution and commute Pike’s sentence. Unless a court or the governor intervenes, Pike would become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819 and the first person in the state’s modern death penalty era to be executed for a crime committed at age 18.