US state prepares to execute a woman for the first time in over 200 years

A woman is set to be executed for the first time in 200 years in Tennessee.

There have been a series of executions that have taken place across America since Donald Trump returned to office in January.

The president wants to restore the death penalty in several states, and recently called for it to be reinstated in Washington DC after it was abolished in April 2023.

Trump believes having the death penalty again is a 'preventative' measure amid the alleged rising crimes rates in the US capital.

As of September 30, there's been 34 executions carried out in the US in 2025, and some are already being scheduled for next year. One person who will be put to death in 2026 is Christa Gail Pike.

Who is Christa Gail Pike?

Christa Gail Pike has been behind bars for 30 years (Tennessee Department of Correction)

Pike is a 49-year-old woman who was found guilty of murdering Colleen Slemmer in 1995. Pike was just 18 at the time of the murder.

The convicted criminal and two others lured Slemmer to her death in the woods in Knoxville. She was beaten, stabbed, and bludgeoned, and had a pentagram carved into her chest. Allegedly, Pike thought Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend.

Slemmer's body was later found 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 reports.

Reportedly, Pike kept a fragment of Slemmer’s skull as a trophy and showed it to classmates.

Pike's sentencing

In 1996, Pike became the youngest person on death row at the age of 20, after a jury found her guilty of first-degree murder.

For most of her 30 years behind bars, she has been the only woman on death row in Tennessee.

When is Pike set to be executed?

Just 18 women have been executed in the US since 1976, and on September 30, 2026, Pike will become the 19th.

It's believed that she will be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, WBIR Channel 10 reports, as that's where the state's appropriately named death chamber is.

Appeals and clemency petition

Pike's attorneys have long called for her execution date to be delayed indefinitely, and that she serve life in prison without the possibility of parole instead.

They argue that had Pike been tried now, a jury would not have given an 18-year-old the death penalty.

They also say that then nature of Pike's crime stemmed from a 'horrific childhood', something which wasn't taken into context when she was sentenced in 1996.

"Christa’s childhood was fraught with years of physical and sexual abuse and neglect," her legal team told USA Today.

"With time and treatment for bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorders, which were not diagnosed until years later, Christa has become a thoughtful woman with deep remorse for her crime."