U.S. Supreme Court Clears Tennessee’s Path to Execute Christa Pike

Convicted Tennessee killer Christa Pike’s execution is set to proceed after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a stay that had temporarily stopped her from being executed. She will become the first woman executed in Tennessee since the early 1800s. The Supreme Court granted Tennessee’s request to vacate the stay issued by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Sixth Circuit had issued the stay in a 2-1 decision to give time to consider legal motions from Pike’s attorneys and the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the Supreme Court’s decision, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor argued that the Sixth Circuit should have been allowed time to consider Pike’s legal challenge before proceeding with execution.

Pike, now 50, was 18 in 1995 when she, her boyfriend, and another accomplice brutally killed their 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in a violent attack described as “satanic.” Pike claimed the attack lasted between 30 minutes and an hour. Both Pike and Slemmer knew each other from a vocational program called the Job Corps Center in Knoxville.

In capital cases, appreciation of our own fallibility and respect for the judgment of an appellate tribunal demand caution before acting irretrievably.

Pike had accused Slemmer of trying to steal her boyfriend and had told another classmate that she “just felt mean” the day before the murder. Armed with a box cutter and meat cleaver, Pike and her accomplices tricked Slemmer by claiming they wanted to visit a music store and smoke marijuana hidden nearby. Instead, Pike attacked her, continuing even as Slemmer begged for her life.

Pike had taken a piece of the victim’s skull as a trophy, later showing it off at school. She recounted details of the brutal murder and showed classmates her bloodstained sneakers. Despite the macabre details, supporters argue Pike received inadequate defense during sentencing, highlighting her untreated bipolar disorder and PTSD due to domestic violence and sexual assaults. A petition with nearly 25,000 signatures has been sent to Gov. Bill Lee requesting her death sentence be commuted to life in prison.

Shipp and Peterson, her accomplices, avoided death sentences. Shipp was under 18 at the time, making him ineligible for capital punishment, while Peterson testified for the state.