Christa Pike's Execution Halted by Appeal Court
Christa Pike’s Execution Halted at Last Minute After She Was Set to Die for 1995 Murder
The scheduled execution of Christa Gail Pike, a Tennessee death row inmate who was convicted of murdering her classmate when she was 18, has been halted at the last minute by a U.S. federal appeals court. Background on Pike’s conviction and death sentence is available in Tennessee court records.
The state plans to execute Pike, who is 50, by lethal injection at 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. If carried out, it would be the first execution of a woman in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
A temporary stay was granted by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals moments before the execution of the prisoner was about to occur, claiming it required more time to evaluate claims that her lawyers' plea regarding her experience of sex abuse and trauma was not thoroughly reviewed when being handed a death sentence.
Pike was 18 when the murder occurred
Pike was found guilty in the killing of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a Job Corps training center in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1995.
Based on court documents and information provided about the case Pike and her former boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, were also convicted in the crime that killed Slemmer. According to the case, Pike was 18 when convicted of Slemmer's murder, and Shipp was 17 years old at the time. Pike received a death sentence for the crime and Shipp got life with the possibility of parole.
The case garnered significant attention due to the brutality of the murder and8 information that surfaced during the investigation, including references to a pentagram on Slemmer's body. The case also became linked to the so-called "satanic panic" associated with some murders in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s.
Pike has not claimed responsibility for Slemmer's death. Her attorneys argued, however, that age at the time of her crime, severe childhood abuse and additional circumstances should have been taken into account more when deciding her sentence.
Governor had already rejected clemency request
The latest court intervention came after several other attempts to stop the execution had failed.
On September 28, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied Pike's request for clemency, meaning he would not commute her death sentence. The following day, the U.S. Supreme Court also denied an application seeking to stop the execution.
That appeared to leave the execution on course for September 30 until the Sixth Circuit intervened shortly before the scheduled time.
The appeals court ordered that Pike's execution be stayed "until further order of this court" while it considers the legal issues raised by her lawyers.
Tennessee asks U.S. Supreme Court to intervene
Following the appeals court's decision, Tennessee's Attorney General's Office asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the stay and allow the execution to proceed.
A Supreme Court docket confirms that the state's application was filed on September 30, 2026, under the case Kenneth Nelsen, Warden v. Christa Gail Pike.
As of the latest reports, the legal proceedings remain ongoing. The appeals court's decision does not overturn Pike's conviction or death sentence; it temporarily prevents Tennessee from carrying out the execution while the court considers the pending legal arguments.
What happened to the "tomorrow" date circulating online?
Social media posts have been circulating about Pike's execution, with some viewers encountering the story without a clear date.
The officially scheduled execution date was September 30, 2026, not October 1. Tennessee's Department of Correction published execution advisories specifically identifying September 30 as the scheduled date.
However, because the execution was stopped shortly before it was due to take place, Pike was not executed on September 30 as originally scheduled.
Whether and when Tennessee will be permitted to carry out the death sentence now depends on the ongoing court proceedings.
Pike's case has drawn renewed attention to the use of the death penalty against people who committed crimes at 18, as well as questions surrounding the consideration of childhood trauma and abuse during capital sentencing. If the execution eventually goes ahead, it would be Tennessee's first execution of a woman in more than two centuries.
