Women on Death Row

Inmate Christa Pike is the only woman currently serving a sentence on Tennessee’s death row.

In 1996, Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Collen Slemmer, a fellow Jobs Corps worker from Knoxville, Tennessee. Pike was 19 years old when the crime occurred in a remote area of the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus. At the time of her incarceration, she was the youngest person on death row at age 21. On March 30, 1996, Pike entered the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center (formerly the Tennessee Prison for Women).

On August 24, 2001, while incarcerated,  Pike was convicted of attempted first degree murder in the assault on inmate Patricia Jones.