Key facts
- Christa Pike is scheduled for execution on September 30 in Tennessee.
- If executed, she will be the first woman put to death in Tennessee in over 200 years.
- Pike was convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
- Pike's defense team argues her history of severe childhood sexual abuse, neglect, bipolar disorder, and PTSD should be considered.
- Pike's lawyers claim her trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by not presenting all relevant mitigating evidence.
- Colleen Slemmer's mother supports Pike's execution, stating she wants justice and for her daughter to finally rest.
Christa Pike is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Tennessee on September 30, a date that would mark the first execution of a woman in the state in over two centuries. Pike, now 50, was convicted in 1996 for the brutal murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, which occurred in 1995. Pike and her then-boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, beat, tortured, and killed Slemmer, allegedly over insults and an accusation of boyfriend theft. Pike bragged about the murder and showed others a piece of Slemmer's skull, according to trial testimony.
Pike's defense team has filed a clemency petition, arguing that her severe history of childhood sexual abuse, neglect, bipolar disorder, and PTSD, which were not fully presented to the jury, warrant a commutation of her sentence. Experts like Sandra Babcock from Cornell Law School and forensic psychologists Dr. Diana McCoy and Dr. Bethany Brand have highlighted the extent of Pike's abuse and mental health struggles, suggesting she would not receive a death sentence today as a teenager. Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in prison in 2021.
However, Tennessee courts have rejected appeals, with a federal appeals court ruling that the jury had already heard about her difficult childhood and that new evidence of mental illness would not have changed the verdict. The Tennessee Supreme Court recently denied Pike's request to halt the execution. Governor Bill Lee has never granted clemency in a death penalty case.
Colleen Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, supports Pike's execution, stating she wants justice for her daughter and for the ordeal to finally end. A victim's rights group, The Justice Coalition, also supports the execution proceeding as determined by a jury of Pike's peers.