Tennessee Governor Rejects Clemency Appeal for State’s Only Female Death Row Inmate

After reviewing Christa Gail Pike’s clemency request, Governor Lee decided to uphold the death sentence and will not intervene.

Pike’s legal team filed the clemency petition earlier this month, asking to commute her death sentence to life imprisonment.

Her attorneys argue that proceeding with the execution would make Tennessee the first state in the modern death‑penalty era to execute someone who was a teenager at the time of the crime.

They say the governor’s decision leaves important questions about Tennessee’s execution protocol unanswered.

In a statement Monday, the lawyers noted that science and the law agree an 18‑year‑old brain is not fully adult, making execution inappropriate for someone that age.

The 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer sparked a media frenzy in Knoxville after the victim was found with a pentagram carved into her chest.

Pike claimed Slemmer had insulted her and tried to steal her boyfriend; two other camp residents testified that Pike bragged about the killing and even showed them a piece of Slemmer’s skull.

A year later Pike was convicted of first‑degree murder and sentenced to death, while her then‑boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence with parole eligibility.

At the time of her incarceration, the 21‑year‑old Pike was the youngest person on Tennessee’s death row, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Pike is scheduled to be executed on September 30 after exhausting her appeals.

Colleen’s mother has said she wants the execution to proceed so her daughter can finally rest.

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