09/23/2026
A woman born in Beckley, West Virginia, is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee in six days.
Christa Gail Pike was 18 years old and attending a Job Corps program in Knoxville when she became convinced that 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer was interested in her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp.
On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp and another student, Shadolla Peterson, led Colleen to a secluded area near the University of Tennessee’s agricultural campus. What followed was a prolonged and brutal attack that ended with Colleen’s death.
Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. In 1996, she was sentenced to death. Shipp, who was 17 when the crime occurred, received a life sentence. Peterson cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.
Now 50 years old, Pike is the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. Her ex*****on is scheduled for September 30, 2026. If it proceeds, she will become the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years.
Pike’s attorneys have requested clemency from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, asking that her sentence be changed to life in prison without parole. They cite her age at the time of the murder, history of severe childhood abuse, mental health conditions and decades spent in isolation. The courts have repeatedly upheld her conviction and death sentence.
At the center of every debate surrounding this case is Colleen Slemmer, a 19-year-old woman whose life was taken in an unimaginably cruel way.
Should Pike’s sentence be carried out, or should it be reduced to life without the possibility of parole?
