Christa Gail Pike, a 50-year-old who was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer, is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on September 30, 2026, an execution that would make her the first woman put to death by the state in more than 200 years.
18 death-sentenced women have been executed in the United States since 1976.
Tennessee death row inmate demands all-female firing squad before execution
— RTBreaking (@RT_Breaking_) September 25, 2026
Christa Pike, 50, who has been on death row since 1996, is set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years on September 30
Pike was 18 when she tortured and murdered her classmate pic.twitter.com/6emafEeqdC
Her defense has argued that severe abuse, sexual victimization, mental illness and other trauma in her background were not properly considered when she was sentenced.
The Tennessee Supreme Court set the execution date after finding that Pike had completed the standard appeals process and that there was no legal reason to prevent the sentence from being carried out.
The court also denied her request for a certificate of commutation to the governor, finding she had not demonstrated circumstances warranting such relief. A separate challenge to Tennessee’s lethal-injection protocol failed to secure a stay this month.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, said she continues to support the execution and wants it to proceed so her daughter can finally rest. Martinez told the BBC that Pike should pay for what she did to her daughter.
The Justice Coalition supports Martinez and raised money for her travel to witness the execution, Robert Bracewell of the group told the outlet.
Pike, 18, killed 19-year-old Slemmer in 1995 after she told another student she intended to kill Slemmer because she “just felt mean that day.” court records show Pike attacked Slemmer with a box cutter and a meat cleaver, repeatedly cutting and beating her and throwing asphalt at her head.
A jury imposed the death penalty after finding the murder involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death and was committed to avoid arrest or prosecution.
Pike’s defense has argued she was 18 at the time of the offense and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, organic brain damage and the effects of a traumatic childhood — circumstances the defense says were never investigated or presented to the sentencing jury.
The Tennessee Department of Correction has begun formal preparations for the execution, accepting applications from recognized Tennessee news organizations to serve as the seven statutorily required witnesses and two alternates for the scheduled execution at 10:00 a.m. CDT on September 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, with selection by drawing.
In an interview with the BBC ahead of the execution, Ashlee Sellars, a friend Pike met in prison, said Pike had contacted her from death row as the date approached and did not want loved ones present to witness the execution.
“Christa in this moment, I think she is fighting much more for her life to matter than she is to actually live,” added Sellars.
Sandra Babcock, who has represented Pike, also told the outlet that trial counsel failed to present Pike’s history of abuse and rape despite being aware of it, and argued that the death penalty disproportionately affects defendants who received inadequate representation.
