Tennessee is preparing to carry out something the state hasn’t done in more than two hundred years: the execution of a woman. The Tennessee Supreme Court has officially approved the request to move forward with the death sentence of Christa Gail Pike, marking a rare and unsettling moment in the state’s criminal-justice history.
Pike, now 49, is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. Her case has remained one of the most disturbing on record, not just for the brutality of the crime but for the age of everyone involved. Pike was only 18 years old when she murdered 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer on January 12, 1995, in a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus in Knoxville. Both Pike and Slemmer were students at the Knoxville Job Corps, a government-run residential training program meant to give struggling young adults a chance at a stable future.
According to court documents, Pike had become convinced — with no evidence — that Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp. Rather than confrontation or distance, the jealousy twisted into something far darker. Pike confided her suspicions to Shipp and another Job Corps student, Shadolla Peterson. Together, the trio formed a plan that would lure Slemmer away from the campus under the guise of resolving a conflict.
What happened next is the reason this case has haunted Tennessee for nearly three decades.
Investigators say Pike led Slemmer into the woods and launched a sustained, vicious attack. She slashed Slemmer’s throat with a box cutter, struck her repeatedly with a meat cleaver, carved a pentagram into her chest, and ultimately crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt. When the brutality ended, Pike didn’t walk away empty-handed. She kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy. That gruesome detail became one of the defining elements of the case.
Retired detective Randy York, who interviewed Pike shortly after her arrest, recalled her demeanor with a mixture of disbelief and frustration. Pike wasn’t withdrawn or remorseful, he said — she was almost gleeful.
“During the interview, she was very giddy, laughed, very cooperative,” York explained years later. “She wanted to tell us all about it.” She even pulled out the skull fragment, wrapped neatly in a napkin, and demonstrated how it fit the fracture “like a puzzle.” For investigators, that moment cemented the chilling nature of what they were dealing with.
In 1996, Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Shipp received life without parole — a sentence the parole board recently upheld again — while Peterson, who testified against Pike and Shipp, avoided prison entirely and was given probation.
The violence didn’t stop with Pike’s conviction. Nearly a decade into her sentence, Pike attempted to strangle another inmate in 2004 and received an additional 25 years. The incident reinforced the concerns of prosecutors and prison officials who argued that Pike remained dangerous.
Still, Pike’s legal team has spent years working to overturn her death sentence or secure a different outcome. Her appeals span almost 30 years and have touched every level of Tennessee’s court system. Her attorneys argue that her age at the time of the murder — barely an adult — and her extensive history of childhood abuse should weigh more heavily in determining her fate. They point to psychological evaluations diagnosing her with bipolar disorder and PTSD, conditions they say developed from years of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and chaos in her home life.
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” her lawyers said in a recent statement. They claim Pike has shown remorse, undergone meaningful treatment, and grown into what they describe as “a thoughtful woman” who understands the enormity of the damage she caused.
But the legal tide has continued to turn against her. On September 30, Tennessee formally requested an execution date. The Tennessee Supreme Court has now granted that request, scheduling Pike’s execution for September 30, 2026.
If the execution moves forward, Pike will become the first woman put to death in Tennessee since 1820 — and only the fourth in the state’s recorded history. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the last woman executed in Tennessee was Martin Eve, who was hanged over two centuries ago for serving as an accessory to murder.
Tennessee’s death-penalty system has itself been under scrutiny. In 2022, Governor Bill Lee halted all executions after it was discovered the state failed to follow proper lethal-injection testing protocols. A comprehensive review followed, leading to revised procedures and stricter guidelines. Executions resumed in May 2025, reopening the path for the state to move forward with long-pending cases like Pike’s.
Now, with Pike’s legal options narrowing and an official date on the calendar, Tennessee is preparing for a case that sits at the intersection of brutality, trauma, youth, justice, and history. Supporters of the execution argue that the cruelty of the crime justifies the sentence imposed. Opponents counter that a teenager shaped by lifelong abuse should not face the ultimate punishment, especially decades later.
The debate is as complex as the case itself. Pike’s crime remains one of the most horrifying in Tennessee’s criminal archives. But her life story — and the choices made at an age when most young people are still figuring out who they are — continues to stir questions.
Three decades after that night in the woods, the state is preparing to close the chapter. Whether that brings closure, controversy, or renewed debate remains to be seen.
