TENNESSEE SET TO EXECUTE WOMAN FOR FIRST TIME IN 200 YEARS

On March 30, 1996, an 18-year-old Christa Pike sobbed and called out for her mother as a Tennessee judge sentenced her to death. She became the youngest woman sentenced to death in the modern era. Three decades later, Tennessee is scheduled to execute her on Wednesday, September 30. She would be the first woman the state has put to death since 1819. On Monday, Governor Bill Lee said he would not intervene.

The crime dates to January 1995. Pike and two other teenagers from the Knoxville Job Corps Center, a federal job-training program for troubled youth, lured fellow student Colleen Slemmer, 19, to a secluded area and beat and stabbed her to death. Investigators said the motive was jealousy: Pike believed Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. A pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s chest, and the media labeled it a “Satanic” killing. Prosecutors accused Pike of the carving, while her attorneys point to court records in which Shipp admitted doing it. Pike also kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull.

Pike and Shipp were only months apart in age, but their sentences were very different. Shipp was 17, and Tennessee law bars the death penalty for anyone under 18, so he received life in prison. He is now eligible for parole. Pike, at 18, is the last person in Tennessee sent to death row for a crime committed at that age. Her record in prison has also been cited against her: in 2004 she was convicted of attempted first-degree murder for strangling another inmate with a shoestring in 2001.

Her attorneys asked Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole. They describe a childhood of severe abuse, including sexual abuse that began when she was a toddler and rapes at ages 11 and 17. They also describe untreated bipolar disorder and PTSD, along with brain damage they link to her mother’s drinking during pregnancy. They argue the jury heard almost none of this, because her trial lawyer’s case for sparing her life lasted only a few hours. They also say the state was willing to settle for life without parole before trial. Pike has said she takes full responsibility, telling supporters, “There is no excuse for what I did.”

For Slemmer’s family, the focus belongs on Colleen. Her mother, May Martinez, plans to drive from Jacksonville, Florida, to Nashville to witness the execution. She remembers her daughter as someone who loved roller skating, computers, and old games with her family. Martinez says Colleen’s identity has been overshadowed by the attention on Pike. “I’m her voice,” she said. She told the Nashville Banner she needs to see the execution so she no longer has to fear Pike might reappear.

Opponents of the execution include UN human rights experts and the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. They argue that brain science now shows little difference between 17- and 18-year-olds, and that Pike’s trauma should have been weighed at trial. Supporters of the sentence counter that a jury imposed it lawfully, that the crime was exceptionally brutal, and that the victim’s family has waited more than 30 years.

The legal options are narrowing. The Tennessee Supreme Court declined to stay the execution, and Pike’s lawyers say they will seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court. In denying clemency, Lee said he was upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee after a thorough review of the case. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps in, the execution is set for Wednesday morning (September 30, 2026).