Next year, Tennessee plans to execute the only woman on the state’s death row.
Christa Gail Pike, who is now 49 years old, brutally killed her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995, when she was only 18 years old. At age 20, she was convicted of the torturous murder and sentenced to death.
Thirty years later, Tennessee is set to execute Pike in 2026. This would make her the first woman executed in the state since Tennessee’s formal documentation of capital punishment.
Here’s everything you should know about this case.
Who Is Christa Gail Pike?
Christia Gail Pike is a convicted murderer who received the death penalty after killing her classmate, Colleen Slemmer, back in 1995. At the time, Pike allegedly viewed Slemmer as romantic competition, believing Slemmer wanted her boyfriend. Pike, along with her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and her friend Shadolla Peterson, carried out the gruesome murder.
According to court documents, a groundskeeper testified that Slemmer’s body was “so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal.”
Allegedly, Pike even bragged about the murder, showing off a piece of Slemmer’s skull to her classmates. Court docs also reveal that the victim had been beaten, stabbed, and left with a pentagram carved into her chest.
After being convicted of the murder at age 20, Pike also received the death penalty. Because he was only 17 at the time, Shipp was not eligible for the death penalty. However, he received a lifetime prison sentence and will be up for parole in November, CBS News reported.
Peterson, on the other hand, turned state witness and testified against Pike during the trial, pleading guilty to being an accessory, according to USA Today. She ended up receiving a six-year probationary sentence.
Will Christa Gail Pike Become the First Woman Executed in Tennessee in 200 Years?
While Pike was given a death sentence 30 years ago, she and her attorneys have attempted to appeal the penalty.
In a letter to The Tennessean, Pike allegedly wrote: “Think back to the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager. Well, mine happened to be huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives … I was a mentally ill 18 yr. 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 that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime.”
Additionally, in a statement to USA TODAY, Pike’s legal team said: “Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect … With time and treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime.”
Still, the state did not drop the death sentence. In fact, on Tuesday, the Tennessee Supreme Court set a date for her to be executed on September 30, 2026. This will make Pike the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee in 200 years, as well as the 19th woman executed in modern U.S. history.
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