Story summary
On September 28, 2023, Christa Pike, a woman sentenced to death for murdering her classmate Colleen Slemmer in 1995 when she was 18 years old, is set to be executed by lethal injection. This execution will mark the first time Tennessee has put a female inmate to death in over 200 years. Pike and her boyfriend tortured and killed Slemmer out of jealousy; the case gained widespread attention due to its brutality and the carving of a satanic symbol into Slemmer's body.
Pike does not deny her guilt but argues that her childhood history of sexual abuse and neglect, as well as her mental health issues, should have prevented a death sentence. Her attorneys filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court for clemency on grounds related to PTSD and potential psychological trauma from lethal injection procedures. However, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee rejected Pike’s request for clemency.
Slemmer's mother has been campaigning for decades for Pike’s execution to proceed. The case highlights ongoing debates about capital punishment in the United States, particularly concerning juveniles and those with documented histories of abuse and mental health conditions. Only 18 women have been executed since the 1970s compared to 1,663 men, underscoring the rarity and controversial nature of female executions in modern American history.
Written for “Tennessee Woman Execution” on 2026-10-04,
grounded in this article and the 137 other(s) covering the same event.
With her execution days away, the lone woman on Tennessee’s death row says she is prepared to die but “nervous” about how the state intends to carry it out.
asserted
state → say → it
Before learning Monday that Gov. Bill Lee would not be intervening in her case, Christa Pike wrote in a letter to NBC News, shared by her spiritual adviser: “Whether my clemency is granted or not, I am at peace.”
“I am not afraid to die,” wrote Pike, who has been on death row for over three decades.
asserted
who → learn → decades
“I’m only nervous about the process.”
asserted
I → ’m → process
Tennessee is poised to execute Pike, 50, on Wednesday by lethal injection — the first time in more than 200 years that the state will put a woman to death, according to historical records.
uncertain
state → poise → records
In 1995, Pike was 18 when Knoxville police say she and two teenage accomplices tortured, slashed and fatally beat Colleen Slemmer, 19.
asserted
she → say → Slemmer
Police say Pike and the others lured Slemmer, a classmate in their Job Corps training program, to an abandoned steam plant at the nearby University of Tennessee and attacked her.
asserted
Pike → say → her
The case became sensationalized when investigators said it was tied to the occult because someone had carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest and Pike bragged to another student that she had kept a fragment of the victim’s skull as a “souvenir.”
asserted
she → become → souvenir
Pike doesn’t dispute her role in the grisly killing.
asserted
Pike → dispute → killing
But details about her upbringing, marked by years of sexual and physical abuse and neglect, were not shared with the jury that sentenced her to death.
asserted
that → mark → death
Her lawyers believe that if such evidence of abuse were presented at a trial now, a death sentence would not be guaranteed.
asserted
sentence → believe → trial
They have asked the Supreme Court to halt Pike’s execution, saying that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from being molested and raped beginning when she was a toddler.
asserted
she → ask → disorder
Being held down and strapped to a gurney, they wrote, will likely create “severe mental suffering and superadded psychological terror under Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol.”
asserted
they → hold → protocol
The state hasn’t denied that Pike has suffered from abuse.
asserted
Pike → deny → abuse
But in a response filed Monday, the attorney general’s office said a judge already concluded last month that it was “speculative whether Pike would suffer” greater mental harm from how the lethal injection protocol is carried out.
asserted
protocol → file → harm
The Supreme Court is Pike’s remaining chance for a reprieve after Lee said he was upholding her death sentence “after deliberate consideration.”
asserted
he → remain → consideration
Pike’s lawyers said Monday they were “saddened and heartbroken.”
asserted
they → say → ?
Another woman, Gaile Owens, was on Tennessee’s death row with Pike until 2010, when Gov. Phil Bredesen changed her sentence to life in prison.
asserted
Bredesen → change → prison
In her letter, Pike wrote that people have seen a “limited public persona that has been the only narrative” about her.
asserted
that → write → her
Her lawyers had tried to convince Lee that she was a product of a tumultuous childhood.
asserted
she → try → childhood
“Stepping into the chaos of Christa’s life that led her to that moment will not justify her actions that night,” one of her lawyers, Randall Spivey, said of when she committed her crime.
asserted
she → step → crime
“But the chaos will show you that Christa was broken, not evil.”
asserted
Christa → show → you
Pike’s lawyers also point to her age and how it led to such a different outcome in her case.
asserted
it → point → case
While she faced a death sentence because of her first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder conviction in Slemmer’s death, another conspirator was spared: Pike’s boyfriend, who was 17 at the time.
asserted
who → face → time
Tadaryl Shipp received a life sentence because he was a juvenile and remains eligible for parole.
asserted
he → receive → parole
Shipp testified at his post-conviction hearing that he was the one who carved a pentagram into Slemmer’s chest.
asserted
who → testify → chest
The third accomplice — Shadolla Peterson, then 18 — served as a lookout in the crime and received probation in exchange for her cooperation.
asserted
accomplice → serve → cooperation
Pike told police she “wasn’t even thinking” when she assaulted Slemmer and that she had been jealous believing the victim was trying to steal Shipp’s attention.
asserted
victim → tell → attention
Pike’s lawyers say that her age would have been more of a factor today, given how scientific research has evolved in understanding that young people’s brains are still developing well beyond their teen years.
asserted
brains → say → years
In addition, her lawyers say that her legal representatives at the time could have accepted a deal from prosecutors who were offering a life sentence without parole in return for a guilty plea.
uncertain
who → say → plea
Pike sobbed as the judge told her she would die by electrocution, then the only form of execution in Tennessee before the state moved to lethal injection as its primary method.
asserted
state → sob → method
She pleaded through tears: “Can I please hug my mom?”
asserted
I → plead → mom
Pike entered prison, where she was placed into solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day and prescribed Prozac to treat her obsessive-compulsive disorder.
asserted
she → enter → disorder
Early on, she struggled to express remorse.
asserted
she → struggle → remorse
“It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done,” Pike said in her clemency petition.
asserted
Pike → take → petition
Three years ago, Bethany Brand, a psychologist specializing in trauma, was asked by Pike’s lawyers to assess whether she suffers from psychological disorders and consider if any contributed to the crime.
asserted
any → specialize → crime
She sat with Pike at her Nashville prison and reviewed police reports, past medical examinations and other files in her case detailing physical and sexual abuse.
asserted
She → sit → abuse
Brand learned that Pike’s parents were not stable figures in her life.
asserted
parents → learn → life
Her mother’s boyfriends and other men had molested her from a young age, the files said.
asserted
files → molest → age
She did poorly in school, living with other family members in West Virginia and North Carolina.
asserted
She → do → Virginia
At 17 — one year before she would take part in Slemmer’s murder — Pike reported to North Carolina police that she was walking to the store when a man threw her to the ground and raped her.
asserted
man → take → her
…and 28 more, not listed.
The Aporia
