As Tennessee prepares for what would be its first execution of a woman in more than two centuries, a special master has now been assigned to Christa Gail Pike’s case.
The Tennessee Supreme Court appointed Shelby County Senior Judge Mark Ward to review Pike’s claims ahead of her scheduled execution on September 30, 2026.
Pike was convicted over the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer. Prosecutors said Pike and two others lured Slemmer into woods near Knoxville, where she was attacked, stabbed, and had a pentagram carved into her chest.
Ward’s role will be to consider whether carrying out the execution would be constitutional, with Pike’s legal team raising concerns about both her physical and mental condition.
He is also expected to review claims about whether the execution could subject Pike to excessive pain, as well as a request concerning whether the death row inmate can have a Buddhist adviser present.
This marks the first time in Tennessee that a special master has been appointed in a case of this nature.
The move follows arguments made by Pike’s attorney, Stephen Ferrell, who has voiced concerns about how the execution could unfold and asked the state to intervene.
“We are particularly concerned given Christa Pike’s blood condition thrombocytopenia, which leads to excessive bleeding, as well as her small veins which make the insertion of a needle difficult, even for the most trained medical professionals,” the legal expert said.
He also warned that ‘the difficulty establishing IV lines is a known complication that has caused prolonged and botched executions for years..’
Ferrell continued:
“Pike’s unique condition would cause a bloody froth in her lungs that would amount to drowning.
“Since the state released the 2025 execution protocol, defense counsel, medical experts, and advocates have warned that the lack of clarity on any number of issues would result in a torturous execution.”
Pike’s attorneys have also argued that the execution would violate the constitution because of her past abuse by men, noting that the execution team is expected to be made up of men.
According to the case, Pike believed Slemmer was trying to take her boyfriend, which prosecutors said was the motive behind the killing.
Slemmer’s body was later discovered by a groundskeeper who testified that ‘the body was so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal’, CBS News reported.
Pike has remained the only woman on Tennessee’s death row for years, and her case has drawn renewed attention because Tennessee resumed executions in 2025 after a long pause and later adopted a revised single-drug lethal injection protocol. The special-master process is part of Tennessee court rules that allow a judge to gather evidence on disputed factual issues in capital cases, including claims tied to the state’s execution method.
Her legal team has also pointed to the broader history of women on death row in Tennessee, arguing that Pike’s sentence is unusually severe compared with the co-defendants involved in the case. Pike was 18 when the crime occurred, making her the youngest woman sentenced to death in Tennessee’s modern capital-punishment era.