Christa Gail Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, now faces a firm date for her execution. The state Supreme Court set it for September 30, 2026, marking the first time in over 200 years that Tennessee would put a woman to death. Pike, convicted in the brutal torture and murder of her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer back in 1995, was just 18 when the crime unfolded at the Knoxville Job Corps center. Details of the attack remain shocking even three decades later—Slemmer was lured into the woods, beaten with asphalt, stabbed repeatedly, and had a pentagram carved into her chest. Pike even kept a piece of Slemmer's skull as a trophy, according to court records.
Now 49, Pike has spent years appealing her death sentence, arguing her youth and troubled background at the time warranted leniency. She became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the U.S. after the Furman v. Georgia ruling reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, got life in prison, while accomplice Shadolla Peterson turned state's witness and received probation. But Pike's legal battles continue; just last year, she settled a lawsuit ending her long stretch in solitary confinement, gaining more privileges in prison.
However, recent efforts to vacate her sentence, citing a Tennessee Supreme Court ruling on juvenile sentencing, were shot down by a Knox County judge in 2023. The Booker decision declared mandatory life terms for young offenders unconstitutional, but it didn't extend to Pike's case since she was 18. Indeed, her attorneys pushed hard, pointing to her mental health struggles and chaotic upbringing—born prematurely to neglectful parents in West Virginia. Yet the court stood firm.
Moreover, this execution, if carried out, would make Pike the 19th woman executed in modern U.S. history. Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has long called for closure after 30 years of pain. The case, often dubbed the "Job Corps Murder," still stirs debate over youth, punishment, and the death penalty's role in justice.
In the end, as the date approaches, one wonders if the system truly heals the wounds it aims to address.