Tennessee Plans To Execute Only Woman On Death Row, First In More Than 200 Years

This week, the Tennessee Department of Corrections announced that it would begin taking applications for media witnesses to serve as witnesses for the executive of Christa Pike, which is scheduled for September 30th, 2026.  

Pike was convicted of premeditated first degree murder and conspiracy to commit first degree murder for killing Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Court documents state the Pike beat Slemmer to death with loose assault and cut her with a box cutter. At some point she carved a pentagram into her victim. Slemmer’s body was eventually identified from dental records, and Pike made several statements to her friends that detailed the crime.  

Pike’s execution date with announced earlier this year after the state of Tennessee restarted executions. The Tennessee Star reports that this move came after the state modified the way it conducted lethal injections.   

Per usual, the legal appeal process continued for decades after the crime. In 2020, the high court denied her appeal, and in 2024 the United States Supreme Court declined to rehear her case.  

The Tennessee Star adds that Pike’s court filings claim she would be the first woman executed by the state since 1819. While the historical records show that there may have been some additional women killed before then, the Department of Corrections say they have no records of woman being executed because their records only go back to 1913.  

Pike is the only woman serving on death row in Tennessee. Currently there are 40 men on death row, and the most recent execution was Anthony Darrell Hines on August 13th.