Despite her last-minute appeals for clemency and legal arguments targeting Tennessee's execution procedures, Christa Pike is set to be executed by lethal injection on Sept. 30 after spending 30 years on death row.
After being convicted of first-degree murder for the torture and killing of Colleen Slemmer in 1995
, Pike was sentenced to death in 1996, becoming the youngest woman in the modern era to be placed on death row.In the months leading up to her execution, Pike and her attorneys have argued that having her execution carried out by men, due to childhood abuse she experienced, would be traumatic and a violation of the Eighth Amendment, according to Tennessean reporting. All of her legal challenges were rejected by a judge after the conclusion
of a three-day hearing.
Pike's last resort is receiving clemency from Gov. Bill Lee, and at the beginning of the month her attorneys filed a plea with the governor's office.
In addition to becoming the youngest woman in the modern era to be placed on death row, Pike's execution also marks a rare episode regarding the state's history of executing women.
When was the last woman executed in Tennessee?
If Pike's execution proceeds as planned, she will become the first woman in more than 200 years to be put to death in Tennessee. She will also be the fourth woman in the state's history to be executed.
Pike will be the first woman put to death since the state started formally documenting executions more than a century ago, according to CBS News.
Who are the women who have been executed in Tennessee?
Historical records obtained by The Tennessean suggest that the last woman to be executed in Tennessee was an unnamed Black woman who was hanged in 1819.
Prior to 1819, there was a hanging in 1808 of another unnamed Black women, whose name was also not recorded because the woman was enslaved and viewed as property, resulting in her being removed from historical execution registries.
The earliest recorded execution of woman occurred in 1807, when Mary Holcomb, a Black woman from Tennessee, died by hanging on March 20 after being convicted of murder. No additional details on her case or personal history were preserved in public archives.
Gaile Owens, who was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill her abusive husband Ron in 1985, came within three months of being executed in 2010. However, then-Gov. Phil Bredesen commuted her sentence to life imprisonment due to the abuse she suffered from her husband.
Are there any other women currently on death row in Tennessee?
Currently, Christa Pike is the only woman on Tennessee's death row. Nationally, there were a total of 45 women on death row as of June 24, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The states with the highest concentration of women death row inmates are California (17), Texas (7), Alabama (5) and Arizona (3).
How many women have been executed across the country?
Since the modern use of the death penalty began in 1976, only 18 women have been executed in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The most recent execution of a woman in the U.S. was in January 2023, when Amber McLaughlin died by lethal injection in Missouri for the kidnapping, rape and murder of her former girlfriend, Beverly Guenther in 2003. McLaughlin was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006.
Keith Sharon of The Tennessean contributed to this report.
Peter Burditt covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact him at PBurditt@nashvill.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: When was the last time Tennessee executed a woman? Christa Pike would be first since 1819
