The Tennessee Supreme Court has set a grim milestone: an execution date for Christa Gail Pike on September 30, 2026. At 49, Pike remains the only woman on the state's death row, convicted for the brutal 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer. This would mark Tennessee's first execution of a woman in over 200 years, stirring fresh debates on capital punishment's rare application to female inmates.
Back in January 1995, Pike, then just 18, lured Slemmer to a secluded spot near the University of Tennessee's agriculture campus in Knoxville. Alongside her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, 17, and friend Shadolla Peterson, 19, Pike unleashed a savage attack. Slemmer endured slashing, beating, and bludgeoning for nearly an hour, her chest carved with a pentagram. Pike later boasted about keeping a piece of Slemmer's skull as a trophy. Prosecutors called it one of the most heinous crimes in Tennessee history. Pike was sentenced to death by electrocution in 1996, becoming the youngest woman to receive such a penalty in the modern U.S. era.
However, the path to this date has been anything but straightforward. Pike's appeals have dragged on for decades, citing her troubled youth—born prematurely amid parental neglect and abuse—and mental health struggles like undiagnosed bipolar disorder and PTSD. In 2023, her lawyers tried to reopen the case, invoking a state ruling against harsh juvenile sentences, but a Knox County judge dismissed it. Moreover, a 2024 settlement ended her years in solitary confinement, granting more privileges like access to books and visitors. Still, her legal team expressed disappointment in the court's recent order, vowing to fight on.
Shipp got life with parole possibility, while Peterson, who turned informant, walked with probation. Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has long pushed for closure after 30 years of anguish. Indeed, the case's brutality—fueled by jealousy over a boyfriend—continues to haunt Knoxville's Job Corps community, where the teens were enrolled for vocational training.
As the clock ticks toward 2026, one wonders if justice delayed truly tempers justice served, or merely prolongs the shadows of that rainy night.