Christa Pike scheduled for Tennessee execution

Christa Pike, the youngest woman sentenced to death in the modern era, is scheduled for execution on September 30, 2026, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. Her death will mark the first execution of a woman by the state of Tennessee in over 200 years.

Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for the January 12, 1995, murder of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Job Corps center in Knoxville. Pike was 18 years old at the time of the crime. The murder involved Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, and another teenage girl. The case gained significant notoriety due to the brutal nature of the killing and the presence of Satanic imagery.

Pike has consistently accepted responsibility for her role in the murder but has argued for leniency based on her youth, documented history of severe childhood sexual abuse, mental illness, and brain impairment.