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Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville is finalizing preparations for the execution of Christa Pike. On Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. local time, the 50-year-old inmate will face capital punishment by lethal injection. Barring a last-minute intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, Pike will become the first woman executed by the state in more than two centuries.
In the hours leading up to the procedure, Pike declined to select a special last meal—a standard option offered to death row inmates—and released a series of statements through her legal counsel and spiritual advisor.
In a letter sent to NBC News and delivered by her spiritual advisor, Buddhist teacher Mikey Noechel, the inmate addressed her state of mind ahead of the execution.
“Whether clemency is granted or not, I am at peace. I am not afraid to die, I’m only concerned about the process,” Pike wrote, drawing a heart at the bottom of the note and stating she had felt “more love in the last two weeks than in my entire life.”
The inmate’s legal team filed a stay of execution request with the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the gurney restraint protocol would cause her “severe mental suffering” due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stemming from childhood physical and sexual abuse.
Meanwhile, during an interview with the British newspaper The Times from the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, Pike commented on the case of Lindsay Clancy, the former Massachusetts nurse whose trial for the deaths of her three children ended in a hung jury amid debate over postpartum psychosis.
“I feel an affinity with Lindsay. We are both women who got caught up in trouble due to specifically female issues. However, there is a difference: awareness of women’s issues has changed significantly since I was tried,” Pike said, comparing the media coverage and mental health approaches in both cases.
The case for which Pike was convicted occurred in January 1995 in Knoxville. Pike, who was 18 at the time, participated alongside her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, 17, and her friend Shadolla Peterson, 18, in the attack on Colleen Slemmer, 19, a fellow participant in a job training program. The victim was lured to a secluded area of the University of Tennessee campus, where she was physically assaulted and beaten to death.
The 1996 trial resulted in distinct sentences for the three participants:
Pike’s defense attorneys argue that current legal standards and neuroscientific research recognize that the 18-year-old brain is still developing. According to the defense, the seven other death sentences handed down in Tennessee’s modern history to 18-year-old males were subsequently overturned, leaving Pike as the only person remaining under a final death sentence for a crime committed at that age.
The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) reported that female staff will handle the inmate’s transfer and custody within the correctional facility. The decision to proceed with the execution date was solidified on Monday when Republican Gov. Bill Lee denied the clemency request, stating he would not intervene in the court ruling.
Meanwhile, May Martinez, Colleen Slemmer’s mother, confirmed she will attend the execution from the witness viewing room.
“Maybe now we will finally have justice. It might not bring my daughter back, but it could prevent someone else from dying,” Martinez told local media, rejecting defense arguments regarding the condemned woman’s psychiatric history.
Barring an emergency stay granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming hours, the execution by lethal injection will proceed as scheduled at 10:00 a.m.
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