Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Requests All-Female Execution Squad to Carry Out Her Killing in Front of Victim's Family
Christa Pike has requested an all-women execution squad.
Sept. 23 2026, Updated 4:24 p.m. ET
With time running out for Christa Pike, who is set to become the first female put to death in Tennessee in 200 years, the death row inmate has made an unexpected request for her execution, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The 50-year-old convicted killer wants the team that carries out her sentence to be composed entirely of women.
Christa Pike Has Spent the Last 30 Years on Death Row
Pike was 18 years old when she killed a fellow student.
Pike was 18 years old in January 1995 when she participated in the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at the Knoxville Job Corps program.
Slemmer was beaten, stabbed, tortured and had a pentagram carved into her chest. Pike was convicted in 1996 and has been on death row for nearly 30 years, much of that time in solitary confinement.
Pike is scheduled to be executed at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville at 10 a.m. on September 30, unless Governor Bill Lee steps in, but with each passing day, that seems to be less of a possibility.
Christa Pike's Lawyer Compares Her Sentence to 'Cruel and Unusual Punishment'
Now 50, she is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 30.
As the lethal injection execution draws closer, her lawyer is begging for an all-women team to carry it out, arguing that Pike has post-traumatic stress disorder from abuse she suffered at the hands of men as a young girl, including when she was just two years old.
"(Lethal injection administered by men) will increase the likelihood that an 8th Amendment violation will occur," Pike’s lawyer Stephen Ferrell said in reference to cruel and unusual punishment.
On Tuesday, Cornell Law School professor Sandra Babcock called for Lee to commute Pike's sentence, blasting that she "has been punished more harshly because she is a woman."
"She was subjected to torturous prison conditions that men don’t experience and is now facing execution under conditions that will cause her to relive her experiences of sexual violence."
Christa Pike's 'Rare Blood Disorder' Could Cause Complications
Pike claims to have been abused by men as early as two-years-old.
The request is the latest attempt to eliminate the death penalty and instead be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Her attorneys have also challenged Tennessee's lethal injection protocol, citing a rare blood disorder that could complicate IV placement and lead to a "prolonged and agonizing" death.
There is precedent for their argument. In May, the execution of murderer Tony Carruthers was postponed after officials could not establish the required IV access, which Babcock argued should be all the justification needed to postpone or change Pike's fate.
"On May 21, 2026, Tennessee Governor Lee called off the execution of Tony Carruthers after the doctor inserting the needle was unable to complete the procedure without causing severe pain," Babcock wrote in a letter.
Governor Lee ultimately granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve, something Pike's lawyers would love to receive as well.
State Prosecutors Plan to Press On
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She is set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
Pike is apparently so concerned about a botched lethal injection that she asked to be hanged instead. However, state prosecutors are opposed to any type of leniency for Pike, arguing that there is no legitimate reason to alter her execution.
"It was Ms Pike’s burden to come forth with scientific evidence to show that these issues are sure or very likely to happen," one state official argued before a judge last month. "She has completely failed to do that."
