Tennessee set to execute first woman in more than two centuries

Tennessee is preparing to execute a woman for the first time in more than two centuries, after the state’s Supreme Court set the execution date for Christa Gail Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.

The State of Tennessee filed a motion on Sept. 30 to set an execution date for Pike, 49, per documents seen by Fox News Digital. She is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 30, 2026. 

If the execution goes ahead, Pike looks to be the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1820 and only the fourth in the state’s history. 

Records from the Death Penalty Information Center note that Martin Eve, listed as a woman, was executed by hanging in 1820 for accessory to murder.

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Pike was 18 years old when she carried out the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville.

Both women were at the Knoxville Job Corps, a career-training program, when Pike began dating 17-year-old Tadaryl Shipp and thought Slemmer was interested in him.

Pike, Shipp, and another friend lured Slemmer into the woods near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus on Jan. 12, 1995,

Court records show Pike cut Slemmer’s throat with a box cutter, struck her with a cleaver, carved a pentagram into her chest and crushed her skull with a piece of asphalt. 

Pike later kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy and showed it to classmates.

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A jury convicted Pike of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced her to death. 

Shipp received life with the possibility of parole, while the third participant testified against Pike and was given probation.

Pike’s violence continued behind bars and in 2004 she was convicted of attempting to strangle an inmate which added another 25 years to her sentence.

For nearly three decades, her case has rolled through the appeals process.

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Defense attorneys have argued that Pike’s young age, history of abuse, and later diagnoses of bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder should exempt her from execution. 

“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” her attorneys said in a statement. 

“With time and treatment, she has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime,” Wednesday’s statement read.

Tennessee recently carried out an execution in 2025, after resuming capital punishment following a three-year pause to review lethal injection drug testing.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Christa Pike’s attorney for further comment.