Tennessee’s death row inmate, Christa Gail Pike, 50, has been set for lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security in Nashville on Wednesday, September 30, 2026. The state’s first execution of a woman in more than two centuries follows the Supreme Court’s refusal to grant her a stay of execution.
Pike was convicted in 1995 after killing 19‑year‑old Colleen Slemmer at a Job Corps training center in Knoxville. Prosecutors alleged that Pike lured Slemmer into a wooded area, beat and stabbed her, and that a pentagram was carved into the victim’s body—an act that fed the era’s so‑called satanic panic.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Pike’s request for a stay, a decision reinforced by Governor Bill Lee’s earlier rejection of her clemency petition. Pike, who remains a psychiatric patient, has pleaded that she was mentally ill at 18, but the state has upheld the death sentence.
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, insists the execution must go forward, citing decades of waiting for justice. A fundraising group has mobilized to bring relatives from Florida to witness the execution, underscoring the case’s lingering community impact.
The execution will take place at 11 a.m. at Riverbend, with federal and state officials on standby. Witnesses, including family members and local activists, will be allowed to attend under strict security protocols.