POV: It’s 1996. You’re 19 years old, convicted of murder¡ng a 19-year-old classmate, sentenced to de¤th and nearly 31 years later, you’re still on de¤th row, with an execution date set for September 30, 2026. In 1995, 18-year-old Christa Pike was a student at a Job Corps center in Knoxville, Tennessee, when she and two other students became involved in the kiIling of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Prosecutors said Pike had told another student the day before that she intended to kiIl Slemmer. On January 12, Pike, her boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and Shadolla Peterson left the Job Corps center with Slemmer. Slemmer never returned. Pike later told another student that she had kiIled Slemmer and showed her an item she claimed to have taken from the scene. Investigators recovered physical evidence connecting Pike and Shipp to the crime. Pike was convicted of first-degree murd€r and sentenced to de¤th. Shipp, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence, while Peterson testified for the prosecution and received probation. Nearly three decades later, Pike remains on Tennessee's de¤th row. Her attorneys have asked Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole, citing her traumatic childhood and circumstances surrounding the crime. As of September 2026, Tennessee has scheduled Pike's execution for September 30, 2026, at 10 a.m. CDT. If carried out, she would be the first woman executed by Tennessee in more than 200 years.