The Tennessee Department of Correction has released detailed media guidelines for the scheduled execution of Christa Pike, the only woman currently on the state’s death row. The execution is set for September 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Insтιтution in Nashville.

Pike, now 50 years old, was convicted in 1996 of the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. The crime occurred in January 1995 on the University of Tennessee Agricultural campus in Knoxville. At the time, both young women were students in a Job Corps program. Pike was 18 years old when the killing took place. She was later sentenced to death and has remained on death row ever since. If the sentence is carried out, she would become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than two centuries.

According to the official advisory issued on September 14, 2026, news organizations that wish to cover the event must submit an RSVP by 12:00 p.m. CDT on September 21 to the Department of Correction’s communications office. Media will be limited to the Riverbend parking lot and an adjacent public area. Check-in begins at 7:30 a.m. on the day of the execution, and no journalists will be admitted after 8:30 a.m. All representatives must present valid press credentials and pH๏τo identification. Special media badges will be issued on site and must be displayed at all times.

Strict rules will govern media movement and activity. Journalists may not leave the designated parking area, must enter and exit only by vehicle, and are required to leave the premises within one hour after the post-execution press conference. No reporting or access will be permitted for 72 hours afterward. Interviews with any correctional staff involved in the process are prohibited. Only the department’s designated communications officials may answer questions about the execution. Smoking is banned on prison property, and violations of the guidelines may result in removal from the site.

In the weeks leading up to the scheduled date, Pike’s legal team filed a formal clemency peтιтion with Governor Bill Lee, asking him to commute her death sentence to life without the possibility of parole. The peтιтion emphasizes her age at the time of the offense, a history of severe childhood trauma, nearly three decades spent largely in solitary confinement, and arguments that her medical and psychological conditions could increase the risk of suffering during the lethal injection process.

International and domestic voices have also called for the execution to be halted. United Nations human rights experts urged Tennessee authorities to stop the proceeding, citing long-term solitary confinement and concerns about the method of execution. Other advocacy groups and legal observers have raised similar issues, while noting the gravity of the original crime and the lasting harm caused to the victim’s family.

As of September 24, 2026—six days before the scheduled date—the execution remains on the calendar. Governor Lee has not yet publicly announced a decision on the clemency request. The Tennessee Department of Correction continues to prepare according to its established protocols, and the media guidelines remain in effect for those planning to report from the site.

The case has drawn national attention both because of Pike’s status as the only woman on Tennessee’s death row and because of the historical significance of a potential female execution in the state after more than 200 years.

Sources : WBIR, The Tennessean