Tennessee to Execute Christa Pike, First Woman in 200 Years

Christa Pike is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, marking the first time Tennessee has put a woman to death in two centuries. Pike, now 50, was convicted in 1995 for the murder of her 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer.

Prosecutors stated that Pike and her boyfriend lured Slemmer to a secluded area and tortured and killed her. The case gained significant attention due to its brutality, the young age of those involved, and the carving of a satanic symbol into the victim's body.

Pike does not dispute her guilt, but her legal team and supporters contend that a death sentence is not suitable for a crime committed by an adolescent with untreated mental health issues stemming from a childhood of severe abuse and neglect.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced Monday that he would not grant clemency to Pike. Her attorneys have petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the execution.

Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell highlighted Pike's traumatic upbringing, detailing incidents of sexual abuse starting in early childhood and assaults at ages 11 and 17. Ferrell argued that critical information about Pike's past and her age at the time of the crime was not adequately presented to the jury during the penalty phase of her trial. Pike was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a statement included in her clemency petition, Pike stated, "I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime."

Ferrell also pointed out that Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time of the murder, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole due to his age. Shipp was denied parole last year, and a third teen involved admitted to being an accessory and received probation. Modern understanding of adolescent brain development suggests that Pike's death sentence is an anomaly, Ferrell noted, as other 18-year-olds sentenced to death in Tennessee for crimes committed at that age have had their sentences reduced.

Nationwide, 275 individuals have been executed for crimes committed at ages 18, 19, or 20 in the modern era of the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. However, death sentences for this age group have become increasingly uncommon.

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, stated, "If Christa Pike was tried today, I do not believe a jury that knew about the documented sexual abuse and neglect she experienced as a child would sentence her to death."

Colleen Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, expressed her desire for the execution to proceed, stating she has waited decades for justice. Martinez reflected on her daughter's life, remembering her volunteer work with the Special Olympics, her love for roller skating, and her aspirations for a career in computers. "She trusted everybody, and that was her downfall," Martinez said.

The slaying deeply affected the Knoxville community. Prosecutors detailed that Slemmer was cut with a box cutter and beaten with a large piece of asphalt. The crime's elements, particularly the carving of a pentagram into Slemmer's body by Shipp, stoked fears related to Satan worship during the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s.

If Pike's execution occurs as scheduled, it would be the first for a woman in Tennessee since 1820. Executions of female inmates are rare across the U.S., with only 18 women executed since 1976, accounting for approximately 1% of all executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Most recently, Missouri executed Amber McLaughlin, a transgender woman, in 2023. In 2021, Lisa Montgomery became the first woman executed by the U.S. federal government in nearly 70 years.