Christa Pike execution plans were halted on September 30, 2026, after a federal appeals court issued a temporary stay just hours before Tennessee was due to put her to death for the 1995 murder of fellow Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer. Pike, now 50, would have become the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years and the only person executed by the state in the modern era for a crime committed at age 18, 19 or 20.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the temporary halt to allow further review of arguments concerning Pike’s history of childhood sexual abuse and whether that history was properly considered when she was sentenced to death. The development came after a series of unsuccessful legal challenges and a clemency request rejected by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.
Lee rejected Pike’s request for clemency on September 28, saying that after reviewing the case he would uphold the state’s sentence and did not plan to intervene. Pike’s attorneys had submitted a 226-page petition asking that her death sentence be changed to life imprisonment without parole.
Pike’s case dates back more than three decades. She was 18 in January 1995 when she and two other teenagers became involved in the killing of 19-year-old Slemmer, whom they knew from the Knoxville Job Corps. Pike was the only one of the three to receive a death sentence. Her boyfriend at the time, Tadaryl Shipp, was 17 and received a life sentence, while Shadolla Peterson, who was also involved and testified against Pike and Shipp, received probation.
Prosecutors said Pike viewed Slemmer as a romantic rival because of her relationship with Shipp. On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp and Peterson lured Slemmer into a wooded area in Knoxville, where she was attacked and killed. Court records describe a prolonged assault involving a knife, a meat cleaver and pieces of asphalt. Pike was also accused of carving a pentagram into Slemmer’s body and keeping part of her skull after the killing.
Pike and Shipp eventually admitted their involvement. Pike was convicted in March 1996 and sentenced to death. She has remained the only woman on Tennessee’s death row.
The case has continued to draw attention not only because of the brutality of the murder but because of Pike’s age at the time and the circumstances surrounding her childhood. Her attorneys have argued that the jury that sentenced her to death did not have a full picture of the abuse and trauma she experienced while growing up. Her clemency petition described repeated sexual abuse, rape and neglect beginning in childhood.
Pike’s legal team has also raised questions about her mental health and the conditions of her imprisonment. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, she was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her lawyers argued that her history was relevant both to the punishment imposed on her and to the potential psychological effects of the execution process.
The state has not disputed the underlying history of abuse described by Pike’s lawyers, although prosecutors and state officials have continued to oppose efforts to stop the execution. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office has argued against the legal challenges brought by Pike’s defense.
The unusual age at which Pike committed the crime has also become a central part of the case. The Death Penalty Information Center says she would have been the only person executed in Tennessee’s modern death penalty era for a crime committed at age 18, 19 or 20. Other Tennessee death sentences involving defendants who were 18 at the time of their crimes have since been vacated.
Before the latest court intervention, Tennessee’s Supreme Court had rejected Pike’s request for a stay. Her attorneys had challenged the state’s lethal injection procedure, arguing that her medical conditions and history of trauma created an unconstitutional risk of severe suffering. A three-day evidentiary hearing in August considered issues including the potential risks associated with the injection process and whether Pike’s transfer and confinement before execution could trigger severe psychological trauma.
The case has also divided the people directly connected to the 1995 killing. Colleen Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has said she supports the execution and planned to attend it, although she has also acknowledged uncertainty over whether it would bring the closure she has sought after losing her daughter. Pike’s lawyers, meanwhile, have described her as remorseful and argued that her life since the murder should be taken into account.
For Tennessee, the case carries significance beyond Pike herself. If ultimately carried out, her execution would mark the state’s first execution of a woman in more than two centuries. Nationally, executions of women remain uncommon. The Death Penalty Information Center says only 18 women have been executed in the United States since 1976.
For now, however, the execution has been stopped. The latest court order gives Pike another legal reprieve while the federal appeals court considers whether her claims about childhood abuse and their relevance to her death sentence received adequate consideration. The state has indicated that it intends to challenge the stay, leaving the final outcome of the case unresolved.
