Christa Pike’s lawyers have begged Tennessee’s governor for mercy just 26 days before she is scheduled to die.
Pike, 50, is set to be executed on September 30 at a Tennessee prison, a date that would make her the first woman put to death in the state in more than two centuries. Her legal team delivered a clemency plea to Governor Bill Lee on Thursday, asking him to commute her sentence to life without parole.
The request comes three decades after Pike, then 18, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the January 12, 1995 torture killing of her Jobs Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike lured Slemmer, 19, to a secluded wooded area with boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, 17, while friend Shadolla Peterson, 18, kept watch. For roughly half an hour, Pike and Shipp beat, slashed and taunted Slemmer before Pike fatally struck her in the head with a piece of asphalt. Pike then kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull, which she later showed off at school.
Pike’s attorneys argue that her traumatic childhood—marked by rape, sexual assault, abuse and untreated mental illness—were critical mitigating factors that the governor must weigh.
“Commuting her sentence to life without possibility of parole does not absolve her of her guilt,” her legal team wrote in their Thursday clemency submission. “To the contrary, it would continue to hold her accountable for the remainder of her natural life.”
The lawyers emphasized that Pike’s history of victimization does not minimize her crime but provides essential context for understanding how she reached that point.
“These realities do not excuse what happened,” the release continued. “But they are essential to understanding how such an unimaginable act became possible and how profoundly adults and institutions failed to support a child in desperate need.”
Kelly Gleason, Pike’s lawyer, wrote separately about her client’s background and present state of mind. “We call on the governor to consider the tragedy of Christa’s childhood and the way in which the adults and institutions charged with her care consistently failed to protect a vulnerable child,” Gleason wrote. “We respectfully urge Governor Lee show Christa mercy.”
Gleason also noted that Pike, who was additionally convicted of attempted first-degree murder for attacking fellow inmate Patricia Jones in 2001 and received a 25-year sentence, feels what she described as “deep remorse for her actions.”
Pike’s path to the death chamber has been prolonged and winding. Born in West Virginia, she was 20 when a jury handed her the death penalty in 1996. She once had an execution date set for August 19, 2002, after dropping her appeal, then changed her mind. She sought death by electrocution at that time. She has also faced additional disciplinary issues behind bars, including a March 2012 discovery that she had made plans to escape prison.
Shipp, now in his mid-forties, was also found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to life with parole eligibility, which he was denied in October 2025. Peterson took a deal to become a witness and received probation after pleading guilty to accessory after the fact.
If the September 30 execution proceeds, Pike will become the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819—though historical records do not identify that earlier condemned woman—and only the 579th woman executed in United States history. She retains the choice between lethal injection and the electric chair, the method she previously selected in 2002.
Pike’s case has drawn renewed attention in part through its inclusion in the “Mean Girl Murders” documentary series, which examined the dynamics among the young women involved in the Jobs Corps program and the circumstances that led to Slemmer’s death.
The governor’s office has not indicated when Lee might rule on the clemency request.