Tennessee has scheduled the execution of Christa Gail Pike, the state’s only female death row inmate. If carried out, she will be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than a century.
The Tennessee Supreme Court has set her execution for September 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
By late August 2026, prison officials must confirm whether she will die by lethal injection… the default method… or by electrocution, an option for inmates convicted before 1999.
Pike, now 49, was convicted at age 18 for the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike attacked Slemmer out of jealousy, with the help of her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and friend, Shadolla Peterson.
- Shipp received a life sentence and will be eligible for parole in November.
- Peterson testified against Pike and got probation.
Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 at age 20, becoming the youngest person on Tennessee’s death row. She has remained its only female inmate for nearly 30 years.
