The only woman in Tennessee was scheduled for execution more than 30 years after she brutally killed a teenage romantic rival and demonstrated the sacrifice skull to school friends.
The Tennessee Supreme Court stated the execution of 49-year-old Christa Gail Pike in 2026. September 30th Pike was barely 18, when she and two more seduced Colleen Slemmer, Knoxville in the forests in 1995. January 12, and organized an attack that made national headlines for his cruelty.
When the owner of the territory found the body of the Slemmer the next day, the teenager was beaten, beaten and naked, and a pentagram was carved in the chest, the court records said.
If Pike’s execution is carried out, it would become the first woman in the state of Tennessee in 200 years and only 19, a woman in modern US history.
“This is a very, very small number,” said Robin Maher, DC’s Death Bus Information Center, a Washington executive director, a profit-making organization that surprises the death penalty in the US without taking the position.
“Since 1976, only 18 women have been executed,” Maher added. “It’s very rare.”
The date of execution of Pike was established by increasing executions in 2025. And expand the enforcement methods used. So far this year, the state has executed 34 prisoners – a number that has not been seen in a decade, and nine more are planned to die.
This is what to know in the case while women are on death in the US
For what was Khrista Gail Pike been convicted?
Christa Gail Pike and Colleen Slemmer Abu were the Knoxville Job Corps-Karaierra training program students, when Pike started meeting a 17-year-old boy in the program and later afraid that Slemmer was trying to steal him, prosecutors told the jurors.
Pike, a friend and boyfriend attracted Slemmer from the center of work and in the forest before the attack, which was basically performed by Pike per hour in 1995. January 12, according to the court’s data.
Shown in Christa Gail Pike.
Later, Pike was intimidated by the Slemmer’s murder, telling another student at the center that she cut a teenager’s throat with a box cutter six times, cut it into meat cutting, cut her pentagram into her forehead and chest and continued violence, although Slemmer “begged” to stop it, according to court records.
Pike said she “threw a large piece of asphalt at the victim’s head,” she thought it was a fatal blow and held a skull fragment, later showing that it would be for fellow students, according to court records.
Pike was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death. Pike’s boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp was convicted of first -degree murder, sentenced to life and November, according to prisoners’ data, would be on probation probation. Pike’s friend Shadolla Peterson – who, according to prosecutors, supported the on -call over the attack – testified to Pike and was convicted of probation.
What does Christa Gail Pike say about the crime?
In the letter she wrote in the state of Tennessee, the part of the USA Today Network said Pike said she was taking responsibility for murder and that she had “drastically changed” from the teenager.
“Think of the worst mistake you made as a reckless teenager. Well, think my huge, unforgettable and ruined many lives,” she wrote. “I was a mentally unhealthy 18 -year -old child. It took me for many years to even realize what difficulty I did. More to meet, how many lives I (sic).
Pike spent 27 years of what, according to her lawyers, was actually isolated because the only woman in Tennessee’s death before she won the opportunity to communicate with other prisoners during eating, classes and religious services.
Her lawyers say she was tested today, she would never have been a death penalty, taking into account her young age and mental health struggle during the crime. They believe that she deserves a life in a prison without being able to compare, not the death penalty.
Christa Pike, the only woman in the Tennessee’s death, was sentenced to 1995. In the case of a torture of colleagues Knoxville Job Corps Colleen Collemer, 19 years old.
“Christa’s childhood was full of long -standing physical and sexual abuse and negligence,” the USA Today said in a statement of her legal team. “Over time and treatment of bipolar and post -traumatic stress disorders that were not diagnosed only after a year, Christa became a thoughtful woman, compassionate compassion for her crime.”
To learn more about Pike, including the background about her childhood, visit here.
Clemmer’s mother May Martinez firmly supported the death penalty for the pike.
“I just want Christa to come down to finish her, to make her daughter easier, so she can finally rest,”-2021. WBIR-TV told Martinez. “There’s no day when I don’t think about Colleen or how she died and how rough it was.”
How many women were executed in the US?
According to the data of the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1976 The US has been executed since 1976 compared to 1,623 men. This means that women make up only 1% of all modern US executions.
Pike is not only the only woman in the Tennessee’s death penalty, but also among the 48 women in the prison people. This is compared to male residents, which are less than 2100 – about 2 percent.
The last woman’s death penalty in the US was Amber McClaughlin in 2023.
The last death penalty in Tennessee was Byron Black on August 5th. For 1988 The murder of his girlfriends and her two young daughters.
How many women did you do?
Quoting the death penalty information center, Pike lawyers say that only three women had ever been executed in Tennessi, all of which took place in 1807-1819.
They list the suspension of three black women in 1807, 1808 and 1819, although they did not identify their crimes. Only one of the names of women is known: 1807. Molly Holcomb. Two of them are listed as slaves that DeathPenaltyusa.org lists, who identify crimes as murder, although many slaves have been illegally killed for false accusations or for no reason.
Contribution: Evan Mealtins, Tennes Sea
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who includes USA Today executions. Follow it at x address @amandaleeusat;
This article initially appeared in the USA Today: Tennessee sets Christa Pike’s execution 30 years after the murder of the opponents