Tennessee is set to put Christa Pike to death by lethal injection on Wednesday, with Pike being the sole woman on the state’s death row. Should the execution go forward as planned, she would become the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years, with the last known female execution in the state taking place at least 1820 ago.
Pike has been incarcerated since 1995, having been convicted of murdering her former classmate, Colleen Slemmer, in 1995 when both were students at the Job Corps Center in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time of the killing; Slemmer was 19. The motive alleged in court records was comments Slemmer made about Pike’s relationship.
The Attack and the Crime
Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, along with a friend named Shadolla Peterson, took part in the attack and killing. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, got a life sentence instead of the death penalty since he did not qualify for it. Last year his request for release was turned down, and the matter will be looked into once more near the close of 2031. Peterson got probation alone after agreeing to testify against Pike during her trial.
Slemmer was beaten and cut with a meat cleaver and box cutter for 30 minutes to an hour in a wooded section of the University of Tennessee’s campus. When Slemmer’s body was found, a piece of the skull was missing, and pentagrams had been carved into her forehead and chest.
After Pike’s conviction in 1996, May Martinez told the Knoxville News-Sentinel that she believed Pike was “evil” and that the state “should kill her right away.” Fellow students said Pike later bragged about the killing and revealed she had removed and kept the missing piece of Slemmer’s skull as a souvenir.
The Trial and the Sentence
At age 20, Pike received a death sentence in 1996, which made her the youngest woman ever placed on death row during the modern period of capital punishment in the United States. Should the execution proceed, she would stand alone as the country’s sole inmate executed since that era began who was 18, 19, or 20 at the time of her crimes.
If Pike had been even a few months younger when the killing took place, she would not have qualified for the death penalty under Tennessee law. Her lawyers have argued that her past — including her history of childhood sexual abuse, abandonment, neglect, PTSD, bipolar disorder and congenital brain damage — was not properly presented during her first trial.
Clemency Denied
Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee rejected Pike’s request for leniency on Monday, which means the state can now proceed with her execution. The United Nations and local advocacy groups have both urged him to reduce her sentence instead, pointing to her history of childhood abuse and untreated mental illness, along with the years she spent in solitary confinement as the only woman on death row.
In response, Pike’s attorneys issued a statement saying they were “deeply saddened and heartbroken” and noting how much their client had changed while incarcerated. One attorney, Luke Ihnen, told CBS News that “in her classic Christa way, she has spent her last days worried more about her friends, family and legal team than herself.”
Pike’s Own Words
In a statement included with her clemency petition, Pike said she recognized that the ramifications of her crime have been “huge, unforgettable and ruined countless lives.” She added: “It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime.”
The Legal Case Against Her
U.S. Circuit Judge Jane Stranch wrote in a 2018 concurring opinion on one of Pike’s appeals that “in sentencing Pike to death, we rule out the possibility that her crime was a product of the immature mind of youth rather than fixed depravity.” Stranch also acknowledged the controversy around Pike’s death sentence, writing that “we presume that she is incapable of reform even though the stories of other teenage killers, many of whom have been rehabilitated behind bars, reveal other possibilities.”
CBS News reported last year that Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the national decline in support for capital punishment and the low number of death sentences handed down to teenagers point to Pike receiving a different sentence if tried today.
Comparing the Cases
| Christa Pike | Tadaryl Shipp | |
|---|---|---|
| Age at the time of the murder | 18 | 17 |
| Sentence | Death | Life in prison |
| Parole status | None applicable | Denied last year, up again toward the end of 2031 |
What Happens Next
The execution is scheduled for Wednesday. If it proceeds, Pike will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years. Her attorneys have filed numerous appeals challenging her death sentence, and their petition for clemency has been denied.
The state has chosen to proceed with the execution, even as the world protests and lawyers raise objections. Pike’s case. Pike’ herself acknowledges the scale of her actions, yet her admission has failed to change the course of her case.
The Paper’s View
Clay Tribune holds that mercy and humane treatment are core values, and Pike’s case raises serious questions about whether the justice system considered her youth, abuse and untreated mental illness at the time of her trial. The paper’s principles point toward mercy, with her remorseful words and the passage of decades speaking for the person involved.
The state has moved forward with the execution, which is now set to proceed. The next few hours will decide if Tennessee carries out its first execution of a woman in more than two centuries.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs strict, certain punishment for violent crime and is against any policy that puts violent offenders back on the street, including cashless-bail and lenient-sentencing approaches, but takes no position on whether this case should proceed as planned. Pike was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, and the law provides avenues for appeal and clemency, all of which have been exhausted here.
The paper’s position rests on the principle that violent offenders must face full consequences, with no room for early release. That principle applies to Pike’s sentence as it does to anyone else’s, regardless of gender, age, or history. The execution is set to proceed as planned.
What the reader should watch for is the narrowness of the legal question. Pike’s lawyers argue that her history of abuse, neglect, and mental illness was not fully presented at trial — a claim about process, not guilt. The state has denied clemency and moved forward with the execution. The paper takes no position on whether the execution should go ahead, only on the principle that violent offenders must face full consequences.
Source material: “What to know as Tennessee plans to execute first woman in 200 years,” CBS News.
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