US5 min(s) read
Published 11:42 22 Apr 2026 GMT
Christa Gail Pike is set to become the first woman to be executed in the US in over two centuries.
The felon is the only woman on death row in Tennessee, after being convicted of a murder so gruesome that it still sends chills down the spines of those familiar with the case.
Pike was sentenced to death after she was found guilty of killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer on January 12, 1995, when she was just 18.
The horrific murder took place in a wooded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus, as the teenagers were part of the Knoxville Job Corps program.
Pike had become jealous of her boyfriend at the time, 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp, as she thought Slemmer was interested in him.
As a result, she would murder her classmate with a box cutter, a cleaver, and a piece of asphalt in an extremely disturbing crime.
Despite facing death in less than six months, Pike filed a lawsuit in the Davidson County Chancery Court, challenging the state's lethal injection protocol.
Her legal team has claimed that the method could cause excessive pain and violate her constitutional rights, while also arguing that her medical condition, thrombocytosis (a blood-clotting condition), could lead to complications.
They also add that her Buddhist beliefs prevent her from choosing electrocution as an alternative, though she pushed for this method back in 2002 before changing her mind.
Tennessee's new execution protocol relies on pentobarbital, which induces respiratory and cardiac arrest, instead of relying on the former three-drug cocktail.
Pike has argued that the state's limitation on clergy, which excludes her Buddhist spiritual advisor, limits her “sincerely held religious belief of Buddhism,” and violates her First Amendment rights as it “burdens” her right to free exercise of religion.
The counsel for Pike explained the three reasons behind her lawsuit to the Nashville Banner, saying: “First, given Christa’s unique medical conditions, we have serious reservations about the State of Tennessee’s ability to prevent a torturous execution.
"Second, the State’s protocol fails to make any contingency plans for when things go wrong.
"Finally, requiring a prisoner to select electrocution to avoid being isolated in the final weeks of their life is particularly cruel and arbitrary — especially for a prisoner like Christa, who was forced to live in solitary confinement for over 25 years and suffers from severe mental illness.”
Pike is set to be executed on September 30, 2026, becoming the only person executed in the state for a crime committed at age 18, 19, or 20 in the modern death penalty era.
The suit also details that Pike suffers from several conditions, including: "Bipolar disorder, PTSD, hyperlipidemia, and 'small veins that make insertion of a needle difficult'."
They claim that due to her conditions, "there is a substantial risk that [Pike] will experience unnecessary superadded pain and suffering, terror, and disgrace."
Court records reveal that Pike killed Slemmer after suspecting that she had developed feelings for her boyfriend, using a box cutter to cut her, before striking the teen with a cleaver and crushing her skull with a piece of asphalt.
She wasn't alone, as Pike was joined by her boyfriend, Shipp, and her friend, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, in carrying out the evil act.
A pentagram was also carved into Slemmer's chest, as Pike and boyfriend Shipp had developed an interest in the occult and devil worship.
Pike even kept a piece of Slemmer's skull, showing it off around school before the three were arrested in just 36 hours.
According to CBS News, a groundskeeper found Slemmer's body and said that she was "so badly beaten that he had first mistaken [her body] for the corpse of an animal."
Pike admitted that she continued to be violent even when Slemmer "begged" her to stop.
A University of Tennessee police officer testified that Pike returned to the scene after the body was found and "seemed amused", noting that "she was giggling," according to a report from USA Today.
Despite their involvement in the crime, Shipp was handed a life sentence, while Peterson was given probation for testifying against Pike and Shipp.
Pike was the only one who was capitally charged, with her legal team continuing to argue that her age at the time, history of abuse, and mental health conditions should exempt her from execution.
"Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect," her defense team said.
"With time and treatment, she has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime."
Pike even apologised in a letter, saying: "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 effected [sic].
"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."
Her team claims that if she were tried today, she would not be sentenced to death.
