Tennessee set to execute only woman on state's death row. Here's what to know.

CBS News ^ | October 3, 2025 | CBS Staff

[Diana in Wisconsin]

If Christa Gail Pike's execution proceeds as planned next year, she will become the first woman put to death in Tennessee since the state began to formally document capital punishment more than a century ago. After attempted appeals by Pike's attorneys repeatedly failed, the Tennessee Supreme Court on Tuesday set a date for her to be executed.

The order granted a scheduling request from the state for the death warrant to be carried out Sept. 30, 2026, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, which houses a majority of Tennessee's death row inmates. Under the terms of this week's state Supreme Court order, the prison warden is obligated to notify Pike of the method that the Department of Correction will use to execute her by Aug. 28.

Condemned inmates in Tennessee usually die by lethal injection, the state's default execution method. But electrocution, while outdated, is technically also authorized as an alternative that inmates can "choose" as long as they committed a capital crime before Jan. 1, 1999. As reports increased of botched executions using lethal drugs in Tennessee and elsewhere around the United States, the Tennessee Correction Department said five inmates between 2018 and 2019 selected electrocution as their preferred execution method.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Now 49, Pike was convicted in the horrific 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Both were students at a career training program for troubled teenagers in Knoxville when Slemmer was tortured and brutally killed, according to court documents. Prosecutors argued in their case against Pike, then 18, that she had believed Slemmer, then 19, had wanted to steal Pike's boyfriend.

The slain teenager's body was discovered by a groundskeeper who "testified that the body was so badly beaten that he had first mistaken it for the corpse of an animal," the court records say.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

She’s been sitting on Death Row for TWENTY-NINE YEARS!

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Here is a description of what Christa Pike did -

“According to later court testimony, for the next thirty minutes, Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed; and a pentagram was carved in her chest. Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer’s skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull.”

So “here’s what you need to know” C-BS - Christa Pike is an evil, vile, wretched woman.

[Flaming Conservative]

Then she’s had more than enough time to repent and give her life to the LORD.

[corlorde]

When she was arrested, she had the piece of skull in her pocket. She's been a prison troublemaker ever since.

Good riddance.

[FlingWingFlyer]

She won’t be missed. She’s one evil biatch.

[Resolute Conservative]

Funny how they want to be in traditional men’s jobs (with physical standards) in the military and such (police/fire/etc... but don’t want equal treatment with crime punishment if they are judged equally.

[oldplayer]

I doubt if this time the progessive/commies will be celebrating “equal justice under the law.”

[Uncle Lonny]

Hell hath no fury.....

Just change the description of “execution” to “retroactive abortion” to get the “liberals” onboard.

[I want the USA back]

Proceed with it.

Makes no difference if it is male or female. Let’s get on with it.

[JesusIsLord]

She's been sitting on Death Row for TWENTY-NINE YEARS!

Pike's lawyers appealed her case to different courts for one reason or another until 2023. On August 30, 2023, Pike's lawyers attempted to reopen her case, arguing her young age (18 at the time of the crime) and damaged mental health should spare her from execution. This motion was denied in October 2023 by Knox County Criminal Court. As of today, October 3, 2025, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued a death warrant for Pike on September 30, 2025, scheduling her execution for September 30, 2026.

I believe every person has a right to appeal their case. On the other side of the coin, 'justice delayed is justice denied.' What I question is an appeal process that can linger in courts for 30 years. Unfortunately, it's in the interest of lawyers to continue a system that allows appeals ad infinitum.

The National Institutes of Health announced it will no longer use rats for medical experimentation. In their place, the NIH will use lawyers. The NIH gave three reasons for this decision:

1. There are now more attorneys than there are rats.
2. The medical researchers don’t become as emotionally attached to the attorneys as they did to the rats.
3. No matter how hard you try, there are some things that rats won’t do.

[billphx]

maybe like this?

https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=X-U0V63-zZk

[Bon of Babble]

Get on with it, be done with it and let justice be served.

It the victim were one of my family members, I would ask to pull the switch.

[rlmorel]

I read the excerpt. Not once in the first three paragraphs did they mention what that human stain did to her victim. This is typical for the Leftist Media.

In the news parlance, that is referred to as putting something "below the fold".

From an article at LINK: Below the fold: What does 'Below the Fold Mean" which discusses its relevance in digital news vs the old paper media:

Below the fold is a term that refers to the area of a webpage that a user must scroll to see. In other words, the content is not immediately visible when they first land on the page so they must scroll down the webpage to view it.

Below the fold is a term that originated with newspaper publishing when there was an actual fold in the middle of a physical page of a newspaper. Therefore, below the fold refers to anything that came beneath that fold. For digital marketing purposes, the fold is where the page naturally ends before you need to keep scrolling.

In newspaper publishing, content that was considered less important was usually placed below the fold because it was unable to be seen when displayed on a newsstand. For digital marketing, content placed below the fold isn’t necessarily less important, but it may not be as urgent or flow well at the start of a blog or webpage.

The fold is typically located at approximately 600 pixels from the top of the page; therefore, when you are strategizing webpage content and call to action buttons, you must understand your platform and its spacing.

[libertylover]

the death warrant to be carried out Sept. 30, 2026

Pffffft!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Our ‘excerpting privileges’ on FR don’t allow for posting much other than ABOVE the Fold.

So, I always add a little more info to the first comment section. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

LOL! :)

[rlmorel]

Oh, no...I wasn’t at all criticizing you in any way.

Not at all!

It was wholly a criticism of CBS and the ideologues there who put the article together. They do that deliberately on all disseminated material.

They put at top what THEY want you to see, and put at the bottom what THEY DON’T want you to see.

[libertylover]

As it is now, the death sentence is not a deterrent to crime.

IMHO, here’s the way it should work: The convicted should be given 1 year for his/her lawyer to bring forth new evidence that might prove his/her innocence. After that, sentence to be carried out.

[healy61]

She is demon possessed. The possession of the screaming people and murderers is so abnormal. I would support all death row appeals be handled at the Federal level with execution within one year of conviction. Appeals should be handled immediately.