Christa Pike, scheduled to be executed on 30 September, and her former boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp, both convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, received vastly different sentences, and the reason comes down to something surprisingly simple: their age.
Pike and Shipp, along with their friend Shadolla Peterson, lured Slemmer to an isolated area near the University of Tennessee's Agricultural campus on 12 January 1995, having convinced her they wanted to reconcile. Instead, they killed her in a brutal assault lasting around 30 minutes. Peterson later testified against Pike and Shipp and received probation after pleading guilty to being an accessory. Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, but was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole rather than death, because he was just 17 at the time of the killing, making him ineligible for capital punishment under the law. Pike, who was 18, received the death penalty, becoming the youngest woman in modern US history to be sentenced to death at just 20.
The one-year age gap between them has become central to Pike's legal team's argument against her execution. In a 2021 filing, her attorneys argued the disparity in sentencing was disproportionate, describing her as being in an abusive relationship with Shipp at the time and claiming he was a leader in the crime. Sixth Circuit Judge Jane Stranch noted in 2019 that had Pike been 17 rather than 18, like Shipp, she would not have been eligible for the death penalty at all. Pike's lawyers have also argued that her severe childhood abuse and later bipolar disorder diagnosis were never fully presented to the jury that sentenced her, and have submitted a clemency petition asking Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to commute her sentence to life without parole.
Shipp remains incarcerated, with the Tennessee Board of Parole denying his release request in October 2025. His case is scheduled for another review in 2031.
