Tennessee Governor Lee rejects Christa Pike clemency plea

September 29, 2026 at 03:27 AM2 min

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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied a clemency request from death row inmate Christa Pike, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on September 30. Pike, 50, was convicted of the 1995 torture and murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Her attorneys have filed a petition with the US Supreme Court seeking a last-minute reprieve.

Key Facts

Christa Pike, 50, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on September 30 in Tennessee.
Governor Bill Lee announced he would not intervene in Pike's case after reviewing her clemency request.
Pike was 18 when she and her then-boyfriend murdered 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995.
Pike's attorneys have filed a petition with the US Supreme Court seeking a last-minute reprieve.
If executed, Pike would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Clemency Denial

Governor Bill Lee said in a statement that after deliberate consideration of Pike's request and a thorough review of the case, he was upholding the sentence and did not plan to intervene. Pike's legal team had filed the clemency petition earlier this month, requesting that her death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Attorneys Stephen Ferrell, Kelly Gleason and Randy Spivey said the governor's decision leaves unanswered vital questions about Tennessee's execution protocol. They argued that the state is ignoring what both science and the legal system have decided: an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, and 18 is too young to face execution.

The 1995 Murder

The murder of Colleen Slemmer created a media frenzy in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1995, when the 19-year-old was found with a pentagram carved into her chest. Pike had accused Colleen of insulting her and trying to steal her boyfriend. Two other residents at the camp later testified that Pike had bragged about the murder before and after, and showed them a piece of Colleen's skull. A year later, Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, while then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

Execution Context

At the time of her incarceration, the 21-year-old Pike was the youngest person on death row, according to the Tennessee Department of Corrections. Only 18 women have been executed in the US since the 1970s, compared to 1,663 men. Colleen's mother has insisted she wants Pike's execution to move forward so that her daughter finally can be resting.