Lawyers representing 50-year-old Christa Pike believe that a “beautiful” childhood photo could spare her life as the planned date of her execution rapidly approaches.
On January 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.
As the relationship continued, Pike grew increasingly jealous of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer, believing she was trying to steal her boyfriend.
Her suspicions, prosecutors say, ultimately led to a deadly plan.
According to court records, Pike, Shipp and another student, Shadolla Peterson, lured Slemmer into a wooded area in Knoxville. Prosecutors said Peterson kept watch while Pike and Shipp attacked Slemmer.
The next day, a groundskeeper found Slemmer’s body, beaten, stabbed and bludgeoned, with a pentagram carved into her chest.
On March 30, 1996, Pike, aged 20, was sentenced to die for the crime. Her execution was initially ordered for January 12, 1997 by electrocution, but 30 years later, she remains on death row.
Her sentence is now set to be carried out via lethal injection on September 30, 2026, though her lawyers continue to appeal for Pike to be granted clemency, highlighting a history of physical and sexual abuse that she suffered as a child.
“Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect,” her legal team said in a previous statement to USA Today.
“With time and treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime.”
As per reports, lawyer Randall J. Spivey has filed a petition to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee – the man with the power to prevent Pike’s execution – detailing the horrific abuse that she was subjected to as a child, and enclosing a photo of her taken at the time when the abuses are believed to have started.
“There is a picture of Christa as a child that I often think about,” the petition reads. “She is outside, her curly red hair is slightly blown by the wind. She has big brown eyes, and her mouth is drawn tight in a straight line.
“I think about this picture for two reasons. First, it is a beautiful picture not unlike the pictures I have of my own daughter at the same age. I am sure you have similar pictures of your daughters.
“Second, I think of this picture because I know that it was taken about the time Christa was first sexually abused.”
The petition highlights some of the ways in which Christa was abused, later adding: “To me, this picture represents a devastatingly sad turning point, where the chaos that surrounded Christa began to leave marks on her that were too much to overcome.”
If her execution proceeds on September 30, 2026, Pike will become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1820 and only the fourth woman ever put to death by the state.
The last woman executed in Tennessee, according to the DPIC, was Martin Eve (also documented as Eve Martin), who was hanged in 1820 after being convicted as an accessory to murder.
During the last 50 years, eight teenagers have received the death sentence in Tennessee, of which seven have since been reduced to life in prison. Pike is the only one remaining.
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