Christa Gail Pike is scheduled to be executed on September 30, 2026, for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee.
If carried out, she would become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years and only the 19th woman executed in the United States in the modern era.
Pike was 18 at the time of the crime. Prosecutors say she lured Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps, into a wooded area over jealousy involving a boyfriend. There, Slemmer was brutally attacked and killed.
The case shocked the country due to its severity and the disturbing details presented in court. Pike was arrested the following day and later convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1996. She was sentenced to death by a jury.
Now 49, Pike remains on death row in Tennessee. Her legal team has argued for life imprisonment instead of execution, citing her age at the time of the crime and mental health issues, including bipolar disorder and PTSD.
The victim’s family, however, has continued to support carrying out the death sentence.
Unless appeals succeed, Pike’s execution is set to take place at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.