Christa Pike is scheduled to be executed by Tennessee on September 30, 2026, unless a court intervenes. The 50-year-old has spent nearly three decades on death row for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Knoxville job training program. Pike’s execution is scheduled for 10:00 a.m.
CDT at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction. If carried out, it would make Pike the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than two centuries. Her legal team is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the execution while proceedings continue.
The Tennessee Supreme Court denied Pike’s request for a stay on September 23, 2026, concluding she was unlikely to succeed on her challenges to the state’s lethal injection protocol. Pike subsequently filed an application for a stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court. The application was submitted on September 25, 2026, according to the Supreme Court docket. The execution remains scheduled while that application is pending.
Christa Gail Pike is Tennessee’s only woman on death row and one of a small number of women nationwide facing capital punishment. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1996 for her role in the killing of Colleen Slemmer, which occurred in January 1995 when Pike was 18 years old.
Pike has been on death row for approximately 30 years. She was also convicted of attempted first-degree murder for a 2001 attack on another inmate, according to court records cited in reporting on the case.
Her case has moved through multiple stages of state and federal review over the decades. In 2026, as her execution date approached, Pike’s legal team pursued challenges focused primarily on Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol and the potential psychological impact of the execution process on Pike, who has documented diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder.
The underlying crime occurred on January 12, 1995, in Knoxville, Tennessee. According to court records and reporting, Pike, then 18, along with her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, then 17, and another individual, lured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to a wooded area near the University of Tennessee agricultural campus.
Slemmer was a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps Center, a job training program for young people. Prosecutors stated that Pike believed Slemmer was trying to “steal” her boyfriend, and the attack followed that motive.
Slemmer was beaten, stabbed, and killed. Pike was the only defendant charged capitally. Shipp received a life sentence because he was 17 at the time of the crime and therefore ineligible for the death penalty under applicable law. The third individual, Shadolla Peterson, testified against Pike and Shipp and received probation, according to Pike’s clemency petition.
A jury convicted Pike of first-degree murder and sentenced her to death in March 1996. She has remained on death row since that time.
According to the Tennessee Department of Correction, Pike’s execution is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. CDT on September 30, 2026, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
The execution date was set by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The method is lethal injection.
A scheduled execution is not the same as a completed execution. Tennessee’s order scheduling the execution remains in effect, but courts retain authority to stay or otherwise alter an execution date. Pike’s pending application before the U.S. Supreme Court is a request to pause the execution. Unless a court or other appropriate authority intervenes, the state’s existing schedule calls for the execution to proceed on September 30.
If carried out, Pike’s execution would make her the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Historical records indicate the last woman executed in Tennessee was an unnamed Black woman who was hanged in 1819. Prior to that, historical records document the execution of another unnamed Black woman in 1808 and Mary Holcomb in 1807. The names of the women executed in 1819 and 1808 were not preserved in public archives, reflecting their status as enslaved individuals who were treated as property rather than persons with recorded identities.
Pike would be the fourth woman executed in Tennessee’s history, according to historical records. She would also be the first woman put to death in the state since formal documentation of executions began more than a century ago.
The historical significance is conditional. If a court stays the execution or the governor grants clemency, the execution would not occur, and the historical outcome would not be realized. The distinction between a scheduled execution and a completed execution is essential to accurate reporting on this case.
Pike’s legal team sought relief from the Tennessee Supreme Court in connection with her scheduled execution. The court was reviewing a special master’s determination regarding Pike’s challenge to the state’s lethal injection protocol.
Shelby County Senior Judge Mark Ward served as a special master appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court to hear arguments in a three-day hearing on Pike’s challenges. Ward concluded that Pike’s attorneys had failed to prove that the state’s method of execution would cause her needless suffering or that she could avoid mental suffering if the state used a different method.
On September 23, 2026, the Tennessee Supreme Court released a 23-page ruling denying the stay request. The court concluded that Pike was unlikely to succeed on any of her challenges to the lethal injection protocol.
The ruling addressed Pike’s claims regarding the execution method. It did not resolve every issue raised by Pike’s legal team in other proceedings, including her pending clemency petition before Governor Bill Lee.
Following the Tennessee Supreme Court’s denial, Pike’s attorneys filed an application for a stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court. The application was submitted on September 25, 2026, according to the Supreme Court docket.
A stay application is a request for the Supreme Court to pause the execution while legal proceedings continue. The filing asks the Court to halt the execution pending further review of Pike’s claims.
As of September 28, 2026, the Supreme Court has not granted a stay. The application remains pending. The Court could grant the stay, deny it, or take other action. No prediction can be made about the outcome based on the current docket alone.
Pike’s attorneys have also submitted a clemency petition to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, seeking commutation of her death sentence to life in prison without parole. The clemency petition remains pending.
Pike’s legal team has raised multiple arguments in court filings and clemency submissions. These are their contentions, presented here with attribution.
Eighth Amendment claims: Pike’s attorneys argue that Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. They contend that Pike’s diagnosed thrombocytosis—a condition involving elevated blood platelets—could make it difficult to establish IV access during the execution, potentially leading to a prolonged and painful procedure.
Psychological trauma claims: According to filings by Pike’s legal team and supporting organizations, Pike experienced severe and prolonged sexual abuse throughout her childhood and adolescence. Her attorneys argue that the physical restraints and invasive procedures involved in lethal injection could trigger traumatic memories and cause her to re-experience the abuse during the execution process. A friend-of-the-court brief filed by women’s advocacy organizations and trauma experts argued that there is a “substantial risk” that Pike would relive the trauma of past sexual assaults during the execution.
Mitigating circumstances claims: Pike’s clemency petition argues that her trial representation failed to adequately investigate and present evidence of her personal history, mental health diagnoses, and the violence she experienced. Her attorneys contend that she was 18 at the time of the crime, had undiagnosed mental illness, and was sentenced before current understanding of adolescent brain development and childhood trauma was fully developed. The petition also notes that Shipp, her co-defendant, received a life sentence because he was 17 and therefore ineligible for capital punishment, while Pike, who was 18, received death.
International human rights findings: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights published a merits report in September 2026 concluding that the United States is responsible for violations of Pike’s rights related to her legal representation, prolonged detention on death row, and conditions of confinement. The Commission recommended review and commutation of her sentence and called on the United States to refrain from carrying out the death penalty. These findings are not binding on Tennessee courts.
Tennessee officials have maintained that Pike’s conviction and death sentence should be carried out as ordered by the courts.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office has not disputed the core facts of Pike’s childhood abuse or her mental health diagnoses, according to reporting on the case. In arguments before the special master, attorney William Ayers acknowledged the abuse Pike experienced, stating that everyone in the courtroom wished those events had never happened.
The state’s position, as articulated in court proceedings, is that psychological harm alone does not constitute an Eighth Amendment violation and that the standard is not a painless execution. The state also emphasizes the severity of the crime for which Pike was convicted.
The Tennessee Department of Correction has followed standard execution procedures, including scheduling the execution for 10:00 a.m. CDT on September 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and selecting media witnesses according to state law.
If the U.S. Supreme Court denies Pike’s stay application and no other court or authority intervenes, Tennessee’s existing order schedules the execution for September 30, 2026.
Legal proceedings can continue up until an execution is carried out. A stay application is not the only avenue for relief. Clemency from the governor remains pending. Other last-minute legal filings could also affect the schedule.
No prediction can be made about whether the execution will ultimately proceed. The procedural posture as of September 28, 2026, is that the execution is scheduled, a state-level stay was denied, and a federal stay application is pending.
Tennessee permits capital punishment. Death penalty cases in the state proceed through multiple stages of trial, direct appeal, state post-conviction review, and federal habeas corpus review. This process can span decades.
Execution dates are set by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Once set, the date can be stayed by court order or altered by other lawful intervention. Last-minute applications for stays are common in capital cases as the scheduled execution approaches.
Tennessee has carried out a small number of executions in recent years. Pike’s case is notable for the length of time she has spent on death row, the historical rarity of female executions in the state, and the legal issues raised by her defense team regarding trauma and execution methods.
The case has attracted national and international attention for several documented reasons.
Historical significance: Pike’s scheduled execution would be Tennessee’s first execution of a woman in more than 200 years, a rare event in the state’s history.
Pike’s status as the only woman on Tennessee’s death row: She is the sole woman under a death sentence in the state and one of a small number of women on death row nationwide.
Ongoing legal proceedings: The Tennessee Supreme Court’s denial of a stay and the pending U.S. Supreme Court application have made the case a current legal news story.
Novel legal arguments: Pike’s attorneys have raised arguments about how the execution process could interact with trauma and mental health conditions, an issue that has drawn attention from advocacy organizations and experts.
Age and case history: Pike was 18 at the time of the crime and has spent approximately 30 years on death row. The contrast between her age at sentencing and the length of her detention has been a focus of her clemency petition.