Christa Pike, a 50-year-old woman on death row since 1996, is scheduled to be executed by electric chair in Tennessee on Wednesday, September 30, 2026. Pike has requested that the entire execution team be female, citing concerns that male executioners could trigger traumatic memories of sexual and physical abuse she suffered as a young child. If an all-female team is not possible, she has requested to be hanged instead.
Murder of Colleen Slemmer
Pike was 18 years old when she murdered her classmate Colleen Slemmer, 19, in 1995. Pike, from West Virginia, had become convinced that Slemmer was trying to "steal" her partner Tadaryl Shipp while all three were participating in a jobs programme at the University of Texas. Pike, along with Shipp and another accomplice, lured Slemmer to an abandoned steam plant on the pretext of smoking marijuana and making peace.
Instead, Pike and Shipp savagely attacked her. Over a thirty-minute period, Slemmer was slashed, beaten, and taunted, while a pentagram was carved into her chest. Her head was then smashed in with a piece of asphalt. Pike kept a fragment of the victim's skull and reportedly showed it to several other students in the 24 hours after the killing. She was arrested two days later.
Legal Battles and Clemency Efforts
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996, becoming one of the youngest women ever to receive the death penalty in America. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received life in prison without the possibility of parole. Lawyers and rights campaigners have long pushed for clemency, citing Pike's neglected and sexually abused childhood, which led to a suicide attempt at age 12. They have also argued that the electric chair would constitute 'cruel and unusual punishment', as it may bring back traumatic memories of Pike's sexual abuse and rape as a minor.
A letter written by several women's advocacy organisations in a court brief filed at the Tennessee Supreme Court read: "She will relive the sounds, the smells, and the pain. She will feel it now as she did then. And it will be as horrific for her now as it was then. ... (We) have very little doubt that Christa Pike will go to her death believing and feeling that she is being raped yet again."
Further Convictions and Escape Attempt
Pike's 1996 murder charge was not her only conviction. In 2001, while behind bars, she was found guilty of attempted first degree murder for attacking and attempting to strangle fellow inmate Patricia Jones with a shoestring, for which she was sentenced to an additional 25 years. In 2012, Pike was found to have been involved in an escape plan while on death row, which involved a prison key being duplicated and a corrections officer, Justin Heflin, being bribed with money and gifts by Donald Kohut, who had become acquainted with Pike during her time in prison. Kohut was sentenced to seven years for his involvement, and Heflin was fired from his job at Tennessee's department of corrections.
In a recent clemency petition, Pike 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-year-old kid. ... 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."
The execution of Christa Pike is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. (CDT) on September 30, 2026.
