Christa Pike is scheduled to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville.
Pike was 18 at the time, the youngest age at which someone can be sentenced to death. She will be the first person put to death in Tennessee for a crime committed at 18 since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.
If the execution continues as scheduled, she'll be executed by lethal injection at Riverbend Maxiumum Security Institution.
Pike will be the second person executed by the state this year, after Anthony Darrell Hines on Aug. 13. Tony Carruthers was scheduled to die by lethal injection May 21,
but the execution was called off last-minute when medical professionals were unable to find a suitable vein for the IV.
Gary Wayne Sutton is scheduled for execution Dec. 3.
Follow here for more information as the day continues.
International media attend execution
09:10 AM ET, September 30 2026, Keith SharonRiverbend communications agents said they are expecting double the media presence for the execution of Christa Pike compared to recent executions. In the media tent outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, a television crew from the Netherlands was recording a feed.
Tennessee's fraught history with executions
09:01 AM ET, September 30 2026, Kirsten FiscusPeople convicted of capital offenses were hanged in Tennessee until 1913, when there was a two-year pause on executions. When executions started again, the state switched to the electric chair.
In March 2000, state legislators designated lethal injection as the primary method for execution. For death row inmates whose crimes were committed before 1999, they have the choice between lethal injection and the electric chair.
But lethal injection has had its own issues in Tennessee.
Former Gov. Phil Bredesen paused executions in February 2007, ordering the Tennessee Department of Correction to review its lethal injection protocols. The moratorium was lifted three months later after the department made revisions.
The department again revised its protocol in 2013, switching from a three-drug cocktail to a single-drug protocol.
After a pause for the pandemic, Gov. Bill Lee called off executions when it was discovered prison officials failed to check the expiration dates on drugs before Oscar Franklin Smith was to be executed. An independent audit revealed several issues with the protocol.
Department officials finished the new lethal injection protocol in December 2024, and executions resumed in May 2025 when Smith was executed.
Christa Pike argued execution choice violates her Buddhist beliefs
08:30 AM ET, September 30 2026, Kirsten FiscusHow can Christa Pike choose the way she is supposed to die if her religion doesn't allow that?
Pike is a Buddhist.
Because Pike's crime was committed before 1999, Tennessee allows her to choose between lethal injection and the electric chair. Pike challenged that process.
"The requirement that she plead an alternative method violates her sincerely held religious beliefs against participating in any process leading to her own death," court records said.
What Christa Pike picked as her last meal
08:01 AM ET, September 30 2026, Kirsten FiscusAs the mechanics and logisitics of executions have continued to evolve in Tennessee, the last meal has been a constant.
Inmates are typically given $20 to spend on the meal.
Christa Pike, however, declined to select a last meal, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction said Sept. 29.
A meal will still be provided to her.
What method of execution did Christa Pike select?
07:31 AM ET, September 30 2026, Kirsten FiscusInmates whose crimes occurred before 1999 are given the option to choose the electric chair or lethal injection.
Christa Pike declined to pick a method of execution.
Per Tennessee state law, when an inmate declines to pick an execution method, it defaults to lethal injection.
If the execution goes as scheduled, Pike will die by lethal injection.
Gov. Bill Lee declines to intervene in Christa Pike execution
07:01 AM ET, September 30 2026, Kirsten FiscusGov. Bill Lee is upholding Christa Pike's death sentence.
Lee announced his decision in a statement Sept. 28.
“After deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene," Lee said.
Pike's attorneys said they were saddened by Lee's decision.
“We are deeply saddened and heartbroken by Governor Lee’s decision to deny clemency for Christa Pike," the lawyers said in a statement. "Moving ahead with her execution puts the State of Tennessee on singular footing: Christa will be the first person Tennessee executes in the modern death penalty era who was a teenager at the time of the offense and the first woman executed by the state in more than 200 years."
When was the last time a woman was executed in Tennessee?
06:30 AM ET, September 30 2026, Kirsten FiscusNot only is Pike one of the youngest women in the modern era to be put on death row in the country, she's the only woman on Tennessee's death row.
If she is executed Sept. 30, she will be the first woman put to death by the state in more than 200 years.
Historical records show the first woman to be executed in Tennessee was Mary Holcomb, a Black woman who was hanged in 1807. She was charged with murder. No further personal details, family background or personal history were preserved in public archives.
After Holcomb there were two other Black women, whose names were not published in the public record. One woman died by hanging in 1808 and the other in 1819.
Who is Christa Pike?
06:07 AM ET, September 30 2026, Kirsten FiscusPike was a student at the Knoxville Job Corps when she killed Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
Born in West Virginia, Pike had a traumatic upbringing marked by violence, and sexual and substance abuse.
Pike began dating Tadaryl Shipp.
Prosecutors said Pike and friend Shadolla Peterson plotted to lure Slemmer to a wooded area and kill her. Pike suspected Slemmer was interested in Shipp.
Pike, Peterson and Shipp gathered at an isolated area behind the University of Tennessee's agriculture campus steam plant. With Peterson as lookout, Pike and Shipp tortured Slemmerbefore bludgeoning her to death.
The beating was so savage that Pike took a fragment of Slemmer's skull.
Pike ultimately confessed to the crime. Peterson turned state witness and pleaded guilty to being an accessory. She was sentenced to six years of probation.
Shipp, only 17 at the time of the killing, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Who was Colleen Slemmer?
06:07 AM ET, September 30 2026, Kirsten FiscusColleen Slemmer was only 19 when she died Jan. 12, 1995.
Slemmer grew up in Orange Park, a suburb of Jacksonville, Florida. She helped paint her school building and volunteered to help during Special Olympics competitions.
A wiz with computers, her grandfather suggested she enroll in the Job Corps program in Knoxville to take computer courses.
That's where she crossed paths with Pike, who was enrolled in nursing.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Christa Pike scheduled to die by lethal injection in Tennessee: Updates
