Christa Pike to become first woman in 200 years to be executed in Tennessee

Christa Pike to become first woman in 200 years to be executed in Tennessee | Freelance News Reporter Published September 27, 2026 10:47am Updated September 27, 2026 10:47am Christa Pike cries as she is sentenced to death in March 1996 (Picture:WBIR-TV via AP) The first woman to be given the death penalty for 200 years in Tennessee has said she doesn’t want her family to be present for her execution. Christa Pike, now 50, beat and tortured to death 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer alongside her then boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp. Pike, who was aged 18 at the time, bragged about the murder, according to residents at the training camp for troubled teenagers where it took place. She was sentenced to death, while her ex-boyfriend was handed a life sentence with the future possibility of parole. The 50-year-old has requested her execution – to be administered by lethal injection – to be performed by an all female team. Authorities in Tennessee have said they are aiming for Pike to be transferred to the execution prison by female guards, but cannot make any guarantees, the BBC reported. Colleen’s mother, May Martinez, said she wanted the execution to happen swiftly so her daughter can ‘finally can be resting’ and even expressed her wish that Pike suffer before her death. ‘She did the crime. I think she should pay for it’, she told Knoxville radio station. However Pike’s case continues to be fought by her legal representatives, who claim she would not have received a death sentence had she been found guilty of the same crime as a teenager today. Pike was also neglected and sexually abused as a child, with some details about her youth now being shared by her lawyers they believe jurors were not able to consider. Pike and her then boyfriend killed 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer (pictured), before bragging about the murder (Picture: Family handout) A report by forensic psychologist Dr Diana McCoy found that Pike was abused by her mother’s partners and husbands and was raped at least twice, when she was 11 and then again at 17. Dr Bethany Brand, another psychologist who studied Pike’s case in 2023, said her case was rare because of the large number of people who abused her when they had a responsibility to protect her. She said that Pike’s traumatic childhood helped to explain why she felt threatened by Colleen and was unable to control her emotions when she killed the young woman. Ashlee Sellar, who met Pike in prison while herself serving 25 years for being involved in a robbery murder, said she felt the case underlined how many people were not getting the help they need. She suggested Pike was fighting ‘much more for her life to matter than she is to actually live’. A total of 27 out of 50 US states officially sanction the death penalty, although many no longer use it in practice. Texas is the most prolific state for capital punishment, with more than 600 executions having taken place since 1982. A total of 14 executions have taken place in Tennessee since 2000, with 40 people currently in the state’s death row. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page. Arrow MORE: Man, 52, dies after ‘incident’ in Rochdale, sparking murder investigation Arrow MORE: Drugs gang plotted to import £20,000,000 of cocaine in frozen fish shipments Arrow MORE: Jill Dando police in new investigation into possible CCTV of ‘Serbian hitman’ Breaking News Never miss the biggest stories with breaking news alerts in your inbox.