With just days remaining before her scheduled execution, Christa Pike’s case has taken another dramatic turn as her lawyers press for clemency and raise new concerns about how the execution would be carried out.

Pike, now 50, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 10:00 a.m. CDT on September 30, 2026, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. If the execution proceeds, she would become the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Her legal team has filed a 226-page clemency petition asking Gov. Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life without parole. The petition argues that Pike’s actions at age 18 should be considered alongside a childhood marked by severe abuse, later diagnoses of PTSD and bipolar disorder, and nearly three decades spent in highly restrictive confinement. Those arguments do not erase the crime, but they are now central to the final clemency push.

A newer and highly unusual issue has also emerged. Pike’s attorneys have argued that the state’s execution protocol could trigger severe trauma responses because of her history of sexual abuse. Reports this week say she has asked for an all-female execution team — or, alternatively, to be executed by hanging rather than lethal injection. That request has added another layer to the legal fight only days before the scheduled date.

Trauma experts supporting her challenge have warned that physical restraint, invasive procedures and loss of bodily control could potentially trigger extreme flashbacks. More than 100 organizations and experts focused on violence against women have also urged the governor to commute her sentence.

Pike was convicted for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, committed when Pike was 18. Her former boyfriend, who was 17 at the time, received a life sentence because he was legally ineligible for the death penalty. Pike remains the only person in modern Tennessee history still facing execution for a crime committed at age 18, 19 or 20.

The biggest question now is whether Gov. Lee will intervene before September 30. As of the latest public updates, the execution remains scheduled, and Tennessee correctional officials are already completing final media and witness preparations.