The Governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, rejected a petition for pardon from the death row prisoner Christa Pike, who will face execution on 30 September 2026. If implemented successfully, she would be the first woman in the state to be executed in over 200 years and the nineteenth in the United States since the modern death penalty was re-enacted. Pike is currently the only woman on death row in Tennessee, where the method of execution can be chosen between the electric chair and the injection. On 23 September, the Tennessee Supreme Court refused to suspend the execution, and the Governor made clear that he did not intend to intervene.
Pike was involved in the murder and torture of the same discipline, Lynn Slemmer, at the age of 18 in 1995, and was sentenced to death by a Corx County jury in March 1996. Her team had previously submitted a petition for pardon to the Governor, arguing that Pike had been neglected, mistreated and mistreated by the mental health system, the juvenile justice system and the criminal justice system during her adolescence, and that she was “break-up rather than evil”. Governor Lee responded that he “will not intervene” and stated that he was “maintenance of sentence”. Various media reports indicate that the Governor ' s Office did not indicate that it would change its position before the date of execution.
The core facts of the Pike case date back to 12 January 1995. At that time, Pike and his boyfriend, Tadarir Hipp, and his associate, Shadora Peterson, took 19-year-old Slymer under false pretences to a remote forest near the Tennessee University Agricultural School. The three men then beat and tortured Slymer for a long period of time, including with a box knife, a pentagon in the chest and forehead, and with a bit of asphalt, which was found fatal, and eventually cut the victim's throat. Pike kept a piece of the victim's skull as a “trophy” after the incident and then showed off the murder to others.
Court documents show that Pike had told her friend the day before the incident that she was “only in a bad mood that day” and thus had the idea of killing Slymer. At about 8 p.m. on the night of the crime, she lured the victim to the scene, accompanied by her boyfriend and associates. By about 10.15 p.m. the group returned empty-handed. During the trial, Pike stated that she had heard a “sound” during the torture to tell her that violence against the victim continued. The following morning, she celebrated the death of Slemmer.
In March 1996, the case was tried by a Corx County jury. The prosecution raised aggravating circumstances, including “cruel and despicable”, emphasizing Pike's dominant role in the attack and its premeditated nature. Although the defence raised the issue of Pike ' s age, experience of ill-treatment and drug use, the jury recommended and sentenced him to death in the form of an electric chair. Pike was thus one of the youngest women sentenced to death in the United States after the Federal Supreme Court reopened the death penalty in 1976. She was convicted at the age of 20 for first-degree murder, conspiracy to first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder confirmed on 22 March 1996.
Pike, after being sentenced to death, has been held in Tennessee Women ' s Prison in Nashville, Tennessee, Tennessee State, where he spent almost the entire adult life, mostly in solitary confinement. Since she is the only woman on death row in the state, the Tennessee Correctional Service has long denied her access to the rest of the prison population, effectively leaving her in prolonged isolation.
In 2022, Pike filed an action against the Tennessee Correctional Service. Her counsel, Angela Bergman, explained that the isolation had led to the loss of Pike ' s vision, chronic migraine and excessive sensitivity to external stimulation, aggravated by the already existing dual emotional disorders, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and created new psychological conditions. The prolonged isolation and deterioration of her condition led to self-harm and repeated suicide attempts. Pike was on her 50th birthday in 2026, but she has been in this isolation for almost 30 years.
Pike ' s team submitted a petition for pardon to Governor Lee, requesting her death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. The petition states: “Crista is broken, not evil.” Counsel points out that she has been in contact with the mental health system, the juvenile justice system and the criminal justice system on several occasions during her adolescence, but that these systems ignored, misdiagnosed and mistreated her in her case. In their view, the neglect, abuse and drug-related contact in the context of her growth should serve as a basis for mitigation.
In response, Governor Lee stated that he did not intend to intervene in Pike's execution and stated that he was “maintenance of sentence”. Numerous media reports cite statements by the Governor that he currently has no plans to grant a pardon to Pike. The Tennessee Supreme Court also issued a decision on 23 September not to suspend the execution. Pike's lawyers subsequently indicated that they would continue to seek relief from the Federal Supreme Court, while still seeking a pardon from Governor Lee, and that they “remain hopeful”.
On 30 September 2025, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued an execution warrant against Pike, setting the execution date at 30 September 2026 exactly one year later. Pike could choose one of the two ways of execution: electric chair or injection. If she does not choose, the procedure will proceed by default. The execution is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. at the maximum security prison in River Bend, Tennessee.
If this execution is carried out, she will be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee for over 200 years and the nineteenth in the modern United States. In numerical terms, it is one of the few executions of women in the State that have long been carried out, with clear historical significance. At the same time, her team of lawyers is still pursuing the final stage of legal relief and pardon requests, but current public information indicates that neither the State Government nor the State Supreme Court showed signs of suspension.
The most important point is the execution on 30 September 2026. If the Federal Supreme Court had previously heard a petition from the Pike team and issued a stay, the execution would have been postponed; otherwise, it would have been carried out under the current arrangements. Pike ' s team of lawyers has made it clear that they will continue to seek relief from the Federal Supreme Court, while continuing to seek a pardon from Governor Lee. For its part, the Governor has stated his position not to intervene and the Tennessee Supreme Court has refused to suspend it.
For the public at large, the substantive impact of the case is primarily at the level of judicial proceedings and policies for the enforcement of the death penalty, rather than directly affecting the lives of ordinary residents. Pike ' s case received widespread attention because it also involved the impact of prolonged isolation on the psychological situation of death row inmates, the adequacy of the juvenile justice and mental health system and the use of the Governor ' s power of pardon in death penalty cases. These issues converge as the date of execution approaches and are the focus of ongoing discussions.
The Pike case leaves a follow-up question: She was also involved in another incident against Patricia Jones in 2001, which led to more than one criminal record. However, public discussions on executions and pardons are currently focused on the 1995 Slymer murder and subsequent convictions and sentences. No matter how advanced the follow-up process was, the date of execution on 30 September had been fixed by a death warrant, and neither the Governor nor the State Supreme Court were showing signs of change.