As Tennessee execution nears, Christa Pike case highlights the few women on death row
Data Visualization Journalist
It is incredibly rare for a woman to be sentenced to death in the U.S., but in Tennessee, a woman is due to be executed on Wednesday for the first time in the state in 200 years.
Only 18 women have been executed in the country’s modern death penalty era, which began in 1977.
The most recent execution was in Missouri in 2023, when Amber McLaughlin, a transgender woman, was executed via lethal injection for the murder of her ex-girlfriend in 2003.
Why are there so few executions?
Women account for only 1% of all executions in the modern death penalty era. Men account for the other 1,664 executions.
The primary reason, experts say, is that women commit fewer violent crimes.
Experts also say juries could be more hesitant to give a woman the death penalty.
“Oftentimes we are looking, when we think about the death penalty, at who is the most deserving of the worst penalty we can impose on an individual,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “And women don’t really fit that image a lot of us have.”
Experts say women face unique challenges in the legal system
Researchers have found that the majority of women on death row — 96% — were either raped, sexually abused as children or subjected to domestic violence prior to their arrest.
“We found that prosecutors were minimizing those experiences or dismissing them outright,” said Sandra Babcock, founding director of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.
Women sentenced to be executed are also frequently isolated in the prison system, experts say. While those on death row are typically held in a separate section of a prison, because there are so few women, they tend to be kept alone.
Which states have women on death row?
There are currently 45 women on death row across the U.S.
California has the greatest number of women on death row, 17, but since 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered that no executions take place.
Since 1900, 56 women have been executed. New York and Texas carried out the highest number of executions.
The Christa Pike case
Christa Pike, 18 at the time, and her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp murdered 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995. A third teen, 18-year-old Shadolla Peterson, was convicted of being an accessory.
Shipp, age 17 at the time, received a life sentence and is now eligible for parole. Peterson received probation.
Pike is scheduled to be executed Sept. 30 in Tennessee. If carried out, she would be the only person executed in Tennessee in the modern death penalty era for a crime committed at age 18.
Lawyers have filed a petition for clemency for Pike due to her age at the time of the crime and because, in her initial trial, they claim her attorney neglected to inform the jury that Pike was a victim of extensive child sexual abuse and multiple rapes.