Inside Death Row Inmate Christa Pike's Final Day — From Showering With Privacy Screens to Meeting With Spiritual Advisor Hours Before 'Painful' Execution

Christa Pike's scheduled lethal injection is now just hours away, RadarOnline.com can report, after Tennessee Governor Bill Lee denied her request for clemency.

Unless Lee has a change of heart, the 50-year-old is set to become the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years.

Pike's procedure is scheduled for 10 am local time on Wednesday, September 30. Until then, she will spend her day adhering to a tight schedule.

At some point on Tuesday, September 29, Pike will be moved from the women’s prison in Nashville to the nearby Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, where executioners are waiting to receive her. She will be the only inmate in the Capital Punishment Unit.

According to procedures obtained by Radar, the state has said that they will make efforts to assign only female staff to observe her. They will also provide a privacy screen when she showers or uses the restroom.

She will be allowed contact with her spiritual advisor in the 12 hours before her execution and will have the advisor with her in the execution chamber.

Pike is entitled to a final meal of her choosing, but under Tennessee Department of Correction guidelines, death row inmates scheduled for execution are allotted a budget of up to $20 for that meal.

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.

Since then, her lawyers have tried several different arguments to deter the death penalty and instead have her sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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 Pike's supporters have argued should be all the justification needed to postpone or change her 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," Cornell Law School professor Sandra Babcock wrote in a letter.

Governor Lee ultimately granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve, something Pike's lawyers would love to receive as well.

But with the lethal injection execution seemingly inevitable, Pike's lawyer is begging for at least an all-women team to carry out the punishment, 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.

"Throughout her childhood, Christa was failed by people and institutions that should have shown her care and meaningful intervention. Instead, her childhood was marked by repeated, documented r-pe and sexual abuse, neglect, and violence," her attorney relayed.

Pike has tried to convince the state of her sorrow for the murder, saying in a documentary, "I've always felt bad for her mother, that I took someone's child, someone's sister, someone’s friend away."

Her attorneys backed up her emotional appeal.

"The 18-year-old girl suffering from severe mental illness and near-debilitating trauma no longer exists," they said in their statement. "Christa is a 50-year-old remorseful woman who understands her actions, receives proper treatment for her mental illness, and provides for and guides fellow incarcerated women."

"With this decision, the State of Tennessee is ignoring what both science and our legal system have decided: an 18-year-old brain is not an adult brain, and 18 is too young to face execution. This decision also leaves unanswered vital questions about Tennessee’s execution protocol," the statement added. "We will continue to support Christa through every remaining avenue and advocate for a system that is transparent for the people of Tennessee."