Christa Gail Pike, who has been on Tennessee’s death row for decades, is now actively fighting to stop her execution as it is scheduled for September 30, 2026.
Christa Gail Pike was only 18 when she became involved in a shocking crime that would later make national headlines for years.
In Tennessee, she was involved in the brutal torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she reportedly saw as a romantic rival, and later shocked classmates by allegedly showing them a fragment of the victim’s skull.
Pike was sentenced to death in March 1996. The seven-man, five-woman jury found her guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Tennessee Department of Correction
According to news reports at the time, she broke down in uncontrollable sobs when the sentence was handed down in court. Christa, who was 20 at the time, became the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in the United States.
Now, after more than three decades behind bars, Pike is set to make history once again — but this time as the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has scheduled her execution for September 30, 2026, and she would become only the 19th woman executed in modern U.S. history.
Buddhist beliefs
From her prison cell, Pike admits the gravity of her actions but argues she doesn’t deserve to die.
“I know I don’t deserve to be out walking around with everybody else in normal society. I did something horrible that is unacceptable and I realize that,” she said in a documentary filmed by WETV.
Her legal team has also filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol, arguing that it could cause severe pain and violate her constitutional rights. They also claim that her medical condition, thrombocytosis — a blood-clotting disorder— could lead to dangerous complications during execution.
In addition, her attorneys say her Buddhist beliefs prevent her from choosing electrocution as an alternative method.
Pike’s lawyers argue that the state’s execution procedures lack safeguards if something goes wrong, and that isolating inmates in their final weeks can add unnecessary psychological suffering. They also point to her long history in solitary confinement and mental health struggles, including bipolar disorder and PTSD, as factors that increase the risk of extreme distress.
The state’s answer
The state, however, maintains that the Constitution does not guarantee a painless execution and insists that its lethal injection method is lawful and established.
Despite her conviction for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, Pike has continued to appeal her sentence and now says she should not face execution.
In a recent letter, she acknowledged responsibility for the crime but argued that she has changed over the years, writing that she regrets her actions and wants her case to be reconsidered in light of her age at the time, mental health, and personal history.
While prosecutors and the victim’s family continue to push for the sentence to be carried out, Pike is continuing her legal battle in an effort to have her death sentence overturned or halted.
Vocal supporter of the death penalty
Colleen Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has been a strong and vocal supporter of the death penalty for Pike. For decades, she has also been trying to recover the final remaining fragment of her daughter’s skull so it can be buried with Colleen’s other remains, which investigators have kept as evidence in the case.
Murder victim's mom wants Christa Pike execution date set
“My heart breaks every single day because I keep reliving it and reliving it, and I can’t no more, and I want this to happen before I die,” Martinez told WBIR-TV in 2021.
“There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about Colleen or how she died and how rough it was,” Martinez continued. “I just want Christa down so I can end it, relieve my daughter, so she finally can be resting.”
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