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American murderer (born 1976)
Christa Gail Pike is an American convicted murderer. In 1995, when she was 18, Pike murdered her 19-year-old Job Corps classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike and her boyfriend lured Slemmer into the woods where they tortured and killed her. In 1996, at the age of 20, Pike was sentenced to death, making her one of the youngest women to receive a death sentence in the United States during the post-Furman period. As of 2026, 18 women have been executed nationwide since 1976, and a woman has not been executed in Tennessee in over 200 years.
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Christa Pike, convicted of murdering a classmate three decades ago, survived Tennessee's effort to execute her by means of lethal injection late on Wednesday, prison officials and her lawyers said, foiling the state's first attempt to put a woman to death in two centuries.
Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death Wednesday for a 1995 murder after administering two doses of a lethal drug. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee halted the remaining execution for the year.
Tennessee's governor is ordering a comprehensive review of Tennessee's second botched execution this year.