If Christa Gail Pike was executed, she would become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee for the first time in 200 years and the 19th woman to be executed in modern American history
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The only woman on Tennessee’s death row inmate is scheduled for execution more than 30 years after brutally killing a romantic teenage rival and showing off part of the victim’s skull to schoolmates.
The Tennessee Supreme Court was scheduled for the execution of 49-year-old Christa Gail Pike on September 30, 2026. Pike was only 18 years old when he invited 19-year-old Colleen Slemer of Knoxville into the forests of Knoxville on January 12, 1995.
The next day, when the groundkeeper spotted Slemmer’s body, the teen was beaten, stabbed, bl laughed, and had a pentogram engraved on his chest, court records say.
If Pike’s execution was done, she would become the first woman to be executed in Tennessee for the first time in 200 years and the 19th woman to be executed in modern American history.
“It’s a very small number,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.
“Since 1976, only 18 women have been executed,” Maher added. “It’s very rare.”
Pike’s run date is set in the increase in 2025 run and the expansion of the run method used. So far, the state has executed 34 prisoners – numbers not seen in 10 years – and another nine are expected to die.
This is what they know about the incident, and the death row inmates in the US
Why was Christa Gail Pike convicted of?
Christa Gail Pike and Colleen Slemmer were students of Knoxville Job Corps, a career training program that Pike dated a 17-year-old boy in the program.
According to court records, friend and boyfriend Pike invited Slemer into the forest before the attack.
Pike later boasts of killing Slemmer, telling another student in the centre that he had cut the teenager’s throat six times with a box cutter, cutting his back with a cleft of flesh, chopping a five-gram star on his forehead and chest, continuing to plead for Slemmer to “stop her.”
Pike said he “threw a large piece of asphalt on the victim’s head,” which was believed to be a fatal blow, retaining a piece of skull and later showed it to fellow students, court records say.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, is convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to life in prison, and will be eligible for parole in November. Pike’s friend Shadra Peterson – prosecutors say he continues to monitor during the attack – has been testified against Pike and sentenced to probation.
What does Christa Gail Pike say about crime?
In a letter she wrote to Tennessee – part of the USA Today Network – Pike said she was responsible for the murder and that she had “changed dramatically” since she was a teenager.
“Think of the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager. “I was an 18-year-old mentally ill person. It took years to realize the gravity of what I did. Plus, it’s even more to accept how many lives I’ve gone through (SIC). I took the lives of someone’s children, sisters, friends.
Pike spent 27 years as the only woman on Tennessee death row inmate, describing her lawyers effectively in solitary confinement before gaining the ability to interact with other inmates during her meals, class and religious service.
Her lawyers argue that Pike was tested today, and that she would not have been given the death penalty given her struggles between her younger age and mental health at the time of the crime. They believe she deserves a life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty.
“Christa’s childhood was full of years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” her legal team said in a statement to USA Today. “The time and treatment of bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorder, which was not diagnosed until several years later, has made Christa a thoughtful woman with deep regrets about her crime.”
Find out more about Pike, including her childhood background, here.
Cremer’s mother, May Martinez, supported the death penalty for Pike.
“I just want to finish it and drop Christa so I can release my daughter, so she can finally get a break,” Martinez told WBIR-TV in 2021.
How many women were executed in the US?
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 18 women have been executed in the United States since 1976, compared to 1,623 men. In other words, women account for just 1% of all modern US executions.
Pike is not only the only woman on death row in Tennessee, but she is only 48 women in the country on death row. This is compared to a male population of less than 2,100 to about 2%.
The last execution of a woman in the United States was the execution of Amber McLaughlin in 2023. McLaughlin was convicted on November 20, 2003 as a man who fatally stabbed 45-year-old Beverly Gentel.
The final execution in Tennessee was the execution of Byron Black on August 5th for the murder of his girlfriend and her two young daughters in 1988.
How many women did Tennessee execute?
Pike’s lawyers say that only three women were executed in Tennessee, and that between 1807 and 1819, everything was done.
They list three black women hangings in 1807, 1808 and 1819, but did not identify any crimes. Only one of the names of Molly Holcomb from 1807 is known. Two of them are listed as slaves by Deathpenaltyusa.org, who named the crime murder.
Contribution: Evan Mealins of Tennessee
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers the executions of USA Today. Follow her on x at @amandaleusat.
