Tennessee's planned execution of Christa Pike halted pending appeals court review

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Pike, now 50, was convicted for a murder she committed at age 18. Her case has renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders, with supporters arguing Tennessee should consider Pike's age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse.

Pike, now 50, was convicted for a murder she committed at age 18

The Associated Press

· Posted: Sep 30, 2026 11:10 AM EDT | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago

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Tennessee's execution of Christa Gail Pike for a murder she committed at age 18 was halted on Wednesday about an hour before it was set to begin, as a federal appeals court sought to review whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered at her sentencing.

This would have been the state's first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.

Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of stabbing and beating 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility, in Knoxville in 1995.

The case garnered widespread attention at the time in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer's body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 1990s.

It wasn't immediately clear if Tennessee's attorney general was appealing the decision, or how long the execution might be delayed. A phone message and email were left with a spokesperson for the attorney general's office seeking comment.

Execution witnesses had already gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville when the order came down at about 9 a.m. CDT.

The case

As the execution date drew near, it renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.

Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters have argued the state should consider her age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler.

Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike's death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds sentenced to death in Tennessee have had their sentences vacated.

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request from Pike's lawyers to halt the execution. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee denied Pike clemency on Monday.

"I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I'd done," Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.

"Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone's child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime."

Slemmer's mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike's sentence carried out.

"Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run," May Martinez said in a telephone interview.

Martinez said a group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution.

• U.S. executes 1st woman on federal death row in nearly 7 decades

The 1995 killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995.

Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Tadaryl Shipp, Pike's boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satanism, into her body.

Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.

Executions of women rare in U.S.

Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Older records can be spotty, though, so it's difficult to know precise details about the last woman who was put to death there.

It's a rarity across the U.S. Since 1976, 18 women have been put to death in the country, representing about one per cent of all executions, according to the centre.

Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S.

In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government put a female inmate to death.