Female death row inmate set to be executed for torture and murder of her classmate

Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, is set to become the first female inmate executed in the state in more than 200 years.

Pike is scheduled to be put to death on September 30, 2026, for the 1995 torture and murder of her fellow Knoxville Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer. She was sentenced to death in March 1996 when she was just 18 years old.

Pike's execution is planned for September 30, 2026, making her the first woman executed in Tennessee in over two centuries.

Her legal team filed a 226-page clemency petition, but has not received a response about a possible last-minute reprieve at the time of publication.

The only person who could halt the execution is Governor Bill Lee, who shut down the possibility on September 28, 2026.

"After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike's request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene," Lee said in a statement at the time.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Pike is also slated to be the only person to undergo the death penalty in Tennessee "for a crime committed at age 18, 19 or 20 in the modern death penalty era." She is one of just 42 people on the state's death row, the only woman among them.

Pike was 18 years old in January 1995, when she was accused of murdering 19-year-old fellow student Slemmer at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville. At the time, Pike had been dating 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, a relationship that prosecutors said made her view Slemmer as a "romantic rival," USA Today reported.

Before the killing, Pike revealed the plan to a friend, then later showed that same friend a piece of Slemmer's skull, court records say.

On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp and a friend led Slemmer into the woods, where Pike attacked her. Court records state that Pike slashed Slemmer's throat, beat her, and threw pieces of asphalt at her. She also told her friend that she used a meat cleaver to slash Slemmer's back and cut a pentagram into her forehead and chest. Investigators said Pike kept a piece of Slemmer's skull after the killing.

Pike and Shipp ultimately admitted to the murder. She was found guilty in March 1996 and sentenced to death that same month.