(Story courtesy of WVLT News)
Nashville, TN (WVLT) The State of Tennessee has scheduled the execution of Christa Gail Pike, an East Tennessee woman convicted in the torture and murder of Colleen Slemmer and the only woman on the state’s death row, for Sept. 30, 2026.
Pike was one of three people convicted in Slemmer’s 1995 murder, often referred to as the “Job Corps Murder.” She faced prosecution alongside her boyfriend Tiddell Shipp and Shadolla Peterson.
She was convicted of hitting Slemmer on the head with a chunk of asphalt, killing her. Prosecutors said she kept a portion of the girl’s skull as a souvenir.
At the time of the murder, Pike was 18, prompting an argument from her defense that she should face a lesser sentence than death. This, because she was only freshly an adult. Her attorneys, Kelly Gleason, Randy Spivey, Stephen Ferrell and Molly Kincaid, released a statement on the execution date Wednesday morning.
We are disappointed in the Tennessee Supreme Court’s order that grants the State of Tennessee’s motion for Christa’s execution. We remain steadfast that Christa’s death sentence should be commuted given her youth and severe mental illness at the time of the crime. Christa was sentenced to death in 1996 for a crime she and two others committed when she was just 18 years old.
Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect. With time and treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime. – Attorneys for Christa Gail Pike
The motion to reopen Pike’s case in hopes of avoiding the death penalty was denied in 2023.
Pike is the only woman on death row, and her execution would mark the first time Tennessee has put a woman to death in more than 200 years.
