Christa Pike, 50, is weeks from becoming the first woman executed in Tennessee in nearly two centuries.
Pike was 18 when she murdered fellow Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer, 19, in Knoxville on January 12, 1995, making her the youngest woman ever sentenced to death in the United States. Her execution is scheduled for September 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.
Court records from her March 1996 trial in Knox County preserve Pike’s final words before deputies led her to her cell. “Can I please hug my mum before I go,” she asked Judge Mary Beth Leibowitz.
The judge denied the request. Pike pressed again: “Please, let me just hug my mum.”
Court documents state that Pike wailed as officers removed her from the courtroom, while her mother attempted to reassure her.
The murder that put Pike on death row began with jealousy. Pike believed Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, at the Job Corps Center where all three lived. Pike, Shipp, and another student lured Slemmer to an isolated spot with promises of smoking marijuana and making peace.
What followed lasted between 30 minutes and an hour, according to evidence presented at trial. Pike kicked and beat Slemmer, slammed her head against concrete, and used a box cutter to slash her stomach and back. She cut Slemmer’s throat multiple times. When Slemmer tried to flee, Pike threw a large piece of asphalt at the back of her head and kept striking her after she fell.
Pike later told a friend she had kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull as a souvenir. Satanic symbols were carved into Slemmer’s body. A University of Tennessee employee found her remains on January 13 and testified that the injuries were so severe he had first mistaken the body for an animal carcass.
A jury found Pike guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder after she pleaded not guilty. She has spent nearly three decades on death row.
Tennessee last executed a woman in 1820. Pike would be only the second woman put to death by the state since it became a state in 1796.
Pike’s case has drawn renewed attention as her execution date approaches, with her age at the time of the crime and her status as the youngest woman on death row central to discussions of her fate.