Execution date listed for this month as death row inmate set to become first woman put to death in Tennessee in 200 years

Pike, 50, is currently the only woman on Tennessee’s death row. Her execution is scheduled this month, on September 30, 2026, after more than three decades behind bars.

On Jan. 12, 1995, Christa Pike was an 18-year-old student at the Job Corps career-training center in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she was dating fellow student Tadaryl Shipp, 17.

Their relationship led to her involvement in the brutal torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, whom she reportedly saw as a romantic rival. In March 1996, Pike was sentenced to death after being found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.