The state of Tennessee could soon carry out its first execution of a woman in over 200 years after the Tennessee Supreme Court approved moving forward with the death sentence of Christa Gail Pike. Now 49 and the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, Pike was just 18 when she carried out one of the state’s most widely known crimes.
On January 12, 1995, Pike led 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer to a wooded area near the University of Tennessee agricultural campus. Both were part of a Job Corps program in Knoxville, but investigators said Pike believed Slemmer had taken an interest in her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp. That jealousy soon escalated into a planned and violent confrontation.
With help from Shipp and another student, Shadolla Peterson, Pike carried out an extremely violent assault using multiple objects, leaving investigators and the public deeply shocked.
One of the most disturbing details came later, when Pike showed detectives a piece of Slemmer’s remains that she had kept. Retired detective Randy York said Pike appeared unusually calm during questioning and even demonstrated how the fragment fit into the injury.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death. Shipp received life in prison without parole, while Peterson, who cooperated with authorities, was given probation. Years later, in 2004, Pike received an additional 25-year sentence after attacking another inmate.
After decades of appeals, officials have now set an execution date for September 30, 2026. Her legal team continues to argue that her young age at the time, along with a history of trauma and mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder and PTSD, should be taken into consideration.
Her attorneys say she experienced severe abuse and neglect growing up and has since expressed remorse. If carried out, the execution would be the first of a woman in Tennessee since 1820, highlighting how rare and complex the case is.
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