In brief
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay the execution of Christa Pike, a 50‑year‑old inmate convicted of murdering a 19‑year‑old teen in 1995. Her attorneys had filed a last‑minute petition hoping to keep her from death, but the high court declined. Governor Bill Lee also denied a clemency request, sealing Pike’s fate. The case brings attention to Tennessee’s last female execution in more than 200 years and questions surrounding juvenile‑at‑adulthood death sentences. The execution is scheduled for 11:00 EDT on Wednesday at Riverbend Maximum Security.
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition to stop the execution of Tennessee inmate Christa Pike, cementing her fate as the first woman to die by lethal injection in the state in over 200 years.
Pike, 50, has been awaiting her death sentence since 1996 after she was convicted of murdering a 19‑year‑old teen named Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Her attorneys filed a last‑minute request ahead of the scheduled execution on Wednesday morning, hoping for a reprieve.
When the high court denied the request, Pike’s execution was set for 11:00 EDT (15:00 GMT) at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. Governor Bill Lee also denied a clemency application, stating he would not intervene in the planned execution.
Slemmer’s murder erupted into a media frenzy; she was found with an inverted pentagram carved into her chest, a symbol often associated with satanic groups. Pike has consistently denied carving the symbol, yet two other camp residents testified that she had bragged about the killing and even showed a piece of Slemmer’s skull.
Her defense teams have argued that, as an 18‑year‑old at the time of the crime, Pike’s brain was not fully developed and that she should not face the death penalty for an act committed as a juvenile. At the time of her incarceration, Pike was the youngest person on death row in Tennessee.
With only 18 women executed in the U.S. since the 1970s compared to 1,663 men, Pike’s case highlights ongoing concerns about gender and age in capital punishment. The execution follows other recent executions and counter‑events in the country, underscoring the contentious nature of the death penalty in contemporary America.
Additional reporting from Sareen Habeshian.
Clarification 29 September: This article originally referred to a pentagram as “a symbol of Satanic ritual”. We have amended the wording to clarify that the symbol in question was an inverted pentagram and that such symbols are associated with some satanic groups.
