Camilla Jessen
Christa Pike has been on death row for 30 years.
Christa Gail Pike is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee in 2026.
If carried out, she will be the first woman executed in the state in more than two centuries.
A Grim First
The United States has seen a rise in executions in 2025, and Tennessee is preparing for one of the most historic cases yet.
Christa Gail Pike, 49, is set to be executed on September 30, 2026, marking the first execution of a woman in the state in over 200 years.
The Crime That Put Pike on Death Row
At just 18 years old, Pike took part in the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995.
According to court records, Pike and two others lured Slemmer into the woods, where she was beaten, stabbed, and had a pentagram carved into her chest.
Pike later kept a fragment of her victim’s skull as a trophy.
Sentenced at 20 Years Old
In 1996, a jury convicted Pike of first-degree murder, making her the youngest person on death row at that time.
She has spent the past three decades in prison, and for most of that time, she has been the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.
One of Few Women Executed in the U.S.
Since 1976, only 18 women have been executed nationwide.
Pike would become the 19th.
Her execution is expected to take place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, home to Tennessee’s death chamber.
Trump’s Push for the Death Penalty
The scheduled execution comes amid a wave of capital punishment cases since Donald Trump’s return to the presidency in January 2025.
The president has called for the death penalty to be reinstated in Washington, D.C., after it was abolished in 2023.
He has described executions as a “preventative measure” against crime.
Legal Team Seeks Clemency
Pike’s attorneys have fought for decades to prevent her execution, arguing that she should instead serve life without parole.
They maintain that her abusive and traumatic childhood, combined with undiagnosed bipolar disorder and PTSD, should have been considered at trial.
A Childhood Marked by Trauma
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” her legal team told USA Today.
They added that with treatment, Pike has become “a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime.”
This article is made and published by Camilla Jessen, which may have used AI in the preparation
