Robert Mueller, special counsel who probed but did not charge Trump, dies at 81

By Will Dunham

FILE PHOTO: Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs from the U.S. Capitol following his testimonies before the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - Robert Mueller, the no-nonsense former FBI chief who documented Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election and its contacts with Donald Trump's campaign but opted not to bring criminal charges against a sitting president, has died at age 81, multiple news outlets reported on Saturday.

His death was reported by MS NOW and a New York Times journalist who posted a statement attributed to the Mueller family. No cause of death was given for Mueller, a ‌decorated Vietnam War veteran who led the FBI in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S.

The New York Times last year reported that Mueller had Parkinson's disease.

Mueller retired after 12 years as Federal Bureau of Investigation director in 2013 ‌but was summoned back to public service by a senior Justice Department official four years later as a special counsel to take over an inquiry into Russia's election meddling after Trump fired then-FBI chief James Comey.

Mueller conducted a 22-month investigation that produced indictments against 34 people, including several Trump associates as well as Russian intelligence officers and three Russian companies, ​and a series of guilty pleas and convictions. Mueller ultimately stopped short of a criminal indictment of the Republican president, bitterly disappointing many Democrats.

Trump on Saturday celebrated Mueller's passing. "Good, I'm glad he's dead," Trump wrote on the Truth Social site. "He can no longer hurt innocent people!"

During his career as a prosecutor and FBI chief, Mueller displayed a patrician manner and sometimes wooden personality - just about the opposite of the bombastic Trump. He was known by some as "Bobby Three Sticks" because of his full name - Robert Mueller III - a moniker that belied his formal bearing and sober approach to law enforcement.

His Russia inquiry, detailed in a 448-page 2019 report, laid bare what Mueller and U.S. intelligence agencies have described as a Russian campaign of hacking and propaganda to sow discord in the U.S., denigrate 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and boost Trump, the Kremlin's preferred candidate. Russia denied election interference.

"First, our investigation found that the Russian government ‌interfered in our election in sweeping and systematic fashion," Mueller said during 2019 congressional testimony.

"Second, the ⁠investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities. We did not address 'collusion,' which is not a legal term. Rather, we focused on whether the evidence was sufficient to charge any member of the campaign with taking part in a criminal conspiracy. It was not," Mueller added.

In analyzing whether Trump had committed the crime of obstruction of justice, Mueller looked at a series of actions. These ⁠included Trump's attempts to have the special counsel fired and to limit the scope of the investigation as well as the president's efforts to prevent the public from knowing about a 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York between senior Trump campaign officials and Russians. Mueller pointedly did not exonerate the president, as Trump claimed.

"Based on Justice Department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime," Mueller told lawmakers.

"The president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed," Mueller added.

'NUMEROUS LINKS'

Mueller was named by the Justice Department's No. 2 official, Rod Rosenstein, to ​take ​over the Russia investigation.

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The investigation, according to the report, unearthed "numerous links" between the Russian government and Trump's campaign and said the president's team "expected it would benefit electorally from ​information stolen and released through Russian efforts," referring to hacked Democratic emails.

Mueller, a longtime Republican, faced unremitting attacks ‌by Trump and his allies on his integrity as they tried to discredit the investigation and the special counsel himself. Trump used social media, speeches and comments to news media to assail Mueller, accusing him of running a politically motivated, "rigged witch hunt," going "rogue," surrounding himself with "thugs" and having conflicts of interest.

"It's all a big hoax," Trump said in 2019.

"Absolutely, it was not a hoax," Mueller told the congressional hearing, noting the numerous charges arising from the probe.

Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted in 2018 on eight charges of financial wrongdoing and pleaded guilty to two others, receiving a 7-1/2-year prison sentence. Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone was convicted in 2019 of seven counts of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering and sentenced to more than three years in prison. Trump later used his executive clemency power to pardon them. Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, entered a guilty plea to lying to the FBI. Trump also pardoned Flynn.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives at the time twice impeached Trump after Mueller had finished his work, though those actions did not grow out of the special counsel's findings.

AN AGENCY IN CRISIS

Appointed by Republican President George W. Bush ‌to head the FBI, Mueller took over as its director one week before the September 11 attacks on the U.S. by al Qaeda militants using hijacked planes ​that killed about 3,000 people. Democratic President Barack Obama later extended Mueller's appointment. By the time Mueller left the position, his tenure was exceeded only by J. Edgar Hoover's ​48-year stint.

Mueller was credited with transforming the premier U.S. law enforcement agency after Congress and an independent government commission determined that the FBI ​and CIA had failed to share information before the September 11 attacks that could have helped prevent them. Mueller revamped the FBI into an agency centered on protecting national security in addition to law enforcement, putting more resources ‌into counterterrorism investigations and improving cooperation with other U.S. agencies.

He put his career on the line in 2004 ​when he and Comey, then the deputy attorney general, threatened to resign when ​Bush White House officials sought to reauthorize a domestic eavesdropping program that the Justice Department had deemed unconstitutional. The two rushed to a Washington hospital and prevented top Bush aides from persuading an ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft, recovering from gallbladder surgery, to reauthorize the surveillance program.

Comey succeeded Mueller as FBI director in 2013, only to be fired by Trump.

Born into an affluent New York family, Mueller grew up outside of Philadelphia, graduated from Princeton University, earned a master's degree at New York University and joined the U.S. Marine ​Corps, serving as an officer for three years, leading a rifle platoon in Vietnam and receiving honors including ‌the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Mueller then earned a law degree from the University of Virginia and later became a federal prosecutor and headed the Justice Department's criminal division, supervising cases including prosecution of the crime boss John J. Gotti and ​the probe into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland, before Bush chose him to lead the FBI.

"He really hates the bad guys," former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, who preceded Mueller as the U.S. attorney in Boston, told the ​New York Times in 2013.

Mueller and his wife, Ann, had two daughters.

(Reporting by Will Dunham; editing by Diane Craft, Sergio Non and Paul Simao)

byNeo

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March 21, 2026

Robert Mueller, special counsel who probed but did not charge Trump, dies at 81

By Will Dunham FILE PHOTO: Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs from the U.S. Capitol following his t...

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Flash flood warning extended for Hawaii's Oahu Island over threat to Wahiawa Dam

A flash flood warning for Hawaii's Oahu island has been extended Saturday as the threat for the imminent failure of the Wahiawa Dam continues to loom following heavy rainstorms.

State officials reported "catastrophic" damage as major rains pummeled the area for the second significant rain event in a week.

Dangerous flooding is continuing to impact Hawaii's Oahu island, prompting more than 230 rescues.

At a press briefing Friday evening, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said emergency crews have already rescued more than 230 people from life-threatening conditions.

3 life-saving tactics to use if in a car during a flash flood

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said there were no confirmed fatalities or missing persons as emergency responders -- including firefighters, the National Guard and military personnel -- have been deployed across affected areas.

The island's emergency management office reported flooding and closed roads on the windward side of the island due to earlier flooding.

The heaviest rain is expected to continue through Saturday for most islands, with the Big Island getting the heaviest rain on Sunday and thunderstorms possible at times, which may include damaging winds.

The very saturated soil and the possibility of wind gusts up to 45 mph could more easily take down trees and power lines.

Additional rainfall accumulations between 2 and 7 inches are likely through the event this weekend.

Earlier Friday, an evacuation order was issued for Haleiwa and Waialua, including areas near the Wahiawa Dam, according to Oahu Emergency Management, which warned that the dam "may collapse or breach at any time."

The dam "has not failed but is at imminent risk of failure," Oahu Emergency Management said mid-morning local time Friday.

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Video Survival tips if you get trapped in a flash flood

Later, the agency said dam levels were trending down but with more rain expected, some evacuation orders remained in place.

At the press briefing Friday evening, officials said they are closely monitoring water levels at the Wahiawa Dam and others. The governor stressed that there are no reports of structural damage. Concerns centered on rising water levels and the risk of overflow, which could affect stability.

Authorities said widespread damage has already been reported to homes, roads, schools, airports and at least one hospital on Maui, where patients had to be relocated. The full financial impact is still being assessed, but early estimates suggest losses could surpass $1 billion.

At a press briefing earlier Friday, the Honolulu mayor said "dozens, if not maybe hundreds of homes" had been affected by the flooding.

"There's no question that the damage done thus far has been catastrophic," he said.

Search and rescue operations were ongoing on Oahu's north shore, according to Honolulu spokesperson Ian Scheuring, who did not have an official number of people rescued so far.

Dangerous, unprecedented heat wave hits the West

On Oahu, all state departments have closed and employees not involved in disaster response and preparedness were sent home Friday due to the weather conditions.

The latest flood threat comes a week after a damaging flood event that washed away roads and damaged homes.

A flash flood emergency was issued for northern Oahu earlier Friday for "catastrophic" flooding. Local emergency personnel had reported "life-threatening flash flooding" early Friday across northern Oahu, according to the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

"Floodwaters have cut off road access in and out of Haleiwa, and widespread flooding of roadways and low-lying areas is ongoing," the NWS said, warning that "significant runoff continues to produce high water levels and dangerous flooding impacts."

ABC News' Kyle Reiman contributed to this report.

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March 21, 2026

Flash flood warning extended for Hawaii's Oahu Island over threat to Wahiawa Dam

A flash flood warning for Hawaii's Oahu island has been extended Saturday as the threat for the imminent failure of t...

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Ms. Rachel aims to help 'close Dilley' ICE facility after speaking with kids in detention there

The boy in the grainy video feed sounded desperate.

"I don't want to be here anymore," he said. "Nothing is good here."

Since early March, 9-year-old Deiver Henao Jimenez had been held with his parents at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas, where children have complained of limited education, lights that never turn off and moldy food. Now he was on a video call with someone who said she wanted to help: Ms. Rachel.

Wearing her signature pink headband,the popular children's entertainerleaned toward the screen, trying to comfort the boy.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said in a warm, high-pitched voice familiar to millions of children and parents. "A lot of people want to try to help."

Deiver told her he missed his friends and that the food at Dilley made his stomach hurt. But that wasn't what worried him most. Before he was detained, he had won his school spelling bee and placed third at regionals, earning a spot at New Mexico's state competition in May.

"I want to leave and go to the spelling bee," he said.

Ms. Rachel tried to reassure him.

"You have a real gift for spelling. You're so smart."

Then her smile faltered.

"It was unbelievably surreal to see this sweet little face and feel like I was on a call with somebody who's in jail," Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Accurso, told NBC News in an exclusive interview this week. "It broke me, and it was something I never thought I'd encounter in life."

Like many Americans, Accurso said she first became aware of the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, in January, after federal immigration agents detained the father of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos in Minneapolis and sent them both to the remote, prisonlike facility. A photograph of the child — wearing a blue bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack — spread widely online, drawing national attention to the center and the treatment of families held there. They were eventually released butthe family's asylum claim was denied this week.

In the first year of its expanded immigration crackdown, the Trump administration placed more than 2,300 children into detention with their parents, with the overwhelming majority held at Dilley, according to figures provided by court-appointed monitors. Many have been held forseveral weeks or months.

During that time, Accurso — whose educational videos for babies and toddlers have made her one of the nation's most recognizable kids' entertainers — has become an increasingly prominent voice speaking out on behalf of vulnerable children. She has drawn attention to the plight of children in war-torn Gaza, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and drawing backlash from critics who have accused her of picking sides in global conflicts.

She has repeatedly defended her advocacy under a simple mantra: "I see all children as precious and equal."

After her video call last week with Deiver and another boy held at Dilley, Accurso told NBC News she is now embarking on a new mission closer to home: working with lawyers and immigration rights activists "to close Dilley and make sure that kids and their parents are back in their communities where they belong."

Parents and immigration lawyershave described childrenthere losing weight after findingworms in their food, growing anxious as guards patrol andstanding in line for hoursfor single doses of medicine. Some havesuffered medical emergencieswhile detained.

About 50 children remained at Dilley this week, down from about 500 in January,The New York Times reportedFriday based on a review of government figures and advocacy group estimates. Some of the families were released in the U.S.; others were deported. It's unclear what led to the sharp decline, but it follows months of pressure from human rights advocates, Democratic members of Congress and immigration lawyers.

The Department of Homeland Security didn't answer questions about the families Accurso met over video. The agency has disputed reports of poor conditions as "mainstream media lies," saying families at Dilley are provided comprehensive care in a facility "purpose-built" for their needs.

The more Accurso read about Dilley after Liam's detention, she said, the more unsettled she became. Then, last week, she got a chance to hear directly from children held there.

Journalist Lidia Terrazas, who has spent months reporting on conditions inside Dilley for theSpanish-language network N+ Univision, set up the video call.

Before chatting with Deiver, Accurso spoke to Gael, a 5-year-old with significant developmental delays. The boy, who is nonverbal, was in the process of being assessed for autism when he and his parents were detained in El Paso at a routine immigration check-in, according to the family's lawyer, Elora Mukherjee. Like Deiver's family, Gael's parents fled Colombia, have pending asylum claims and no criminal history in the U.S., and had been working and living in the country for years before their arrests, the families' lawyers said.

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Mukherjee, a professor at Columbia Law School and the director of its Immigrants' Rights Clinic, said Gael has a history of severe constipation that had been managed at home with a specialized diet, including fresh fruit and soups. In detention, she said, his condition spiraled.

In a brief video interview on Friday, Gael's parents, Nelsy and Leonardo, told NBC News their son's condition had continued to deteriorate in detention, both physically and emotionally. They asked to be identified only by their first names, fearing retaliation should they be deported to Colombia.

"This is not a place for him because he needs special care," Leonardo said, as Gael wandered around the bare, gray meeting room. "No human being should ever go through this."

On Accurso's call with her, Gael's mother said her son had not been able to poop in nine days and was struggling to eat, gagging when he tried. The facility had been treating him with laxatives and later an enema, but his condition hadn't significantly improved, his mother said. His stomach was visibly distended, Accurso said, leaving her "incredibly worried."

"Imagine if your child hadn't pooped in nine days," she said. "This is not normal. This is an important medical situation."

As his mother spoke, Accurso slipped into character and tried to engage him — singing "Wheels on the Bus," holding up a toy and talking to him about his love of trains — but he appeared restless and overwhelmed, she said.

Amid his confusion and discomfort, Gael has grown increasingly distressed at Dilley, Mukherjee said, at times hitting himself — behavior his parents had not previously seen.

"Treating a child this way is a crime," Accurso told NBC News. "It's neglect and child abuse."

Accurso said she was no less concerned about Deiver.

In their brief conversation, he moved quickly past the conditions inside the facility to what he was missing outside it — his classmates, his gifted and talented courses and, most of all, the spelling bee he had been preparing for.

"He's so proud," Accurso said.

The juxtaposition, she said, was difficult to process: a child talking about his love of pizza and school one moment, then asking for help getting out of a federal detention center the next.

"We're trying to get a child out of a jail to do a spelling bee," she said. "I just never thought those words would go together."

Accurso recalled winning her own second-grade classroom spelling bee with a lucky guess on the word "chocolate" — a small, long-ago victory she still remembers in vivid detail.

Moments like that are more than milestones, said Accurso, who has master's degrees in music education and early childhood development. They shape how children see themselves — their confidence, their sense of belonging, their sense of what comes next.

Taking those kinds of opportunities away from a child, she said, "is cruelty."

After speaking with the children, Accurso said she initially hesitated to speak out publicly.

Her advocacy for children in Gaza had led to a torrent of criticism from right-wing groups that accused her of antisemitism for centering Palestinian children rather than Israelis. Accurso has pushed back on those claims, noting that she advocates for children suffering on both sides of the conflict. The controversy has led to threats against her family, she said, and she worried that speaking out about ICE detention might inflame the situation.

But she kept coming back to the example set by Fred Rogers, the late children's television icon she considers her hero, who used his platform to speak out on behalf of children.

Ultimately, she said, the decision felt clear.

And unlike in the past, when she painstakingly sought to frame her activism as apolitical, Accurso said she is ready to embrace the label.

"I am political," she said. "It's political to believe that children are worthy of love and care, and that every child is equal, and that our care shouldn't stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border."

If being political is what it takes to bring Gael home, or to get Deiver to his spelling bee, Accurso said, then her conscience leaves her no other choice.

byNeo

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March 21, 2026

Ms. Rachel aims to help 'close Dilley' ICE facility after speaking with kids in detention there

The boy in the grainy video feed sounded desperate. "I don't want to be here anymore," he said. ...

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Tennessee plans rare execution of a woman. She's fighting back.

Christa Gail Pikewas just 18 years old when she committed a crime that dominated headlines for years: She tortured and murdered her romantic rival in Tennessee and later showed off a piece of the 19-year-old woman's skull to schoolmates.

The killing in the woods of Knoxville demonstrated a brutality and callousness rarely seen in a woman, let alone one so young. Now 30 years later, Pike is back to making headlines as the state of Tennessee prepares to execute her.

Pike, who just turned 50 on March 10, is set to be executed by lethal injection about six months from now on Sept. 30 for the murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. On Jan. 12, 1995, Pike and two others lured Slemmer into the woods and carried out a ritualistic murder that lasted about an hour.

If the execution moves forward, Pike will be the first woman put to death in Tennesseein more than 200 yearsand only the19th woman executedin modern U.S. history.

She's now fighting back and suing the state to stop her execution.

Pike's attorneysfiled a lawsuitin a Tennessee court in January challenging the state's lethal execution method, arguing that it violates her religious beliefs and constitutional rights, and could cause her excessive pain. In response to Pike's arguments, the state says in a court filing on Thursday, March 19, that she hasn't presented any evidence that the lethal injection presents an unconstitutional risk to her and that death row inmates have never been guaranteed a pain-free execution.

During Pike's time behind bars, she has taken responsibility for the murder and has "changed drastically," she wrote in a 2023letter she wrote to The Tennessean− part of the USA TODAY Network.

"It sickens me now to think that someone as loving and compassionate as myself had the ability to commit such a crime," she wrote.

USA TODAY is looking at Pike's arguments for a reprieve from execution, what the state has to say about them and how the victim's mother feels.

What was Christa Gail Pike convicted of?

Christa Gail Pike and Colleen Slemmer were both students at the Knoxville Job Corps, a career-training program, when Pike began dating a 17-year-old boy in the program. She later came to fear that Slemmer was trying to steal him, prosecutors told jurors at trial.

Pike, her friend and the boyfriend, lured Slemmer away from the Job Corps center and into the woods before the attack, largely carried out by Pike over an hour-long period on Jan. 12, 1995, according to court records.

Pike later bragged about killing Slemmer, telling another student at the center that she had cut the teenager's throat six times with a box cutter, cut her back with a meat cleaver, carved a pentagram into her chest, and continued the violence even though Slemmer "begged" her to stop, according to court records.

Pike said she had "thrown a large piece of asphalt at the victim's head," believed to be a fatal blow, and kept a skull fragment, later showing it off to fellow students, court records say.

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Pike's boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was convicted of first-degree murder, sentenced to life in prison and recently was denied parole. Pike's friend, Shadolla Peterson − who prosecutors say kept watch during the attack − testified against Pike and was sentenced to probation.

Who is Christa Gail Pike?

Christa Gail Pike, 50, is the only woman on Tennessee's death row and has been living there for 30 years following her sentencing in April 1996. Pike and her mother, Carissa Hansen, sobbed uncontrollably in the courtroom during the sentencing, according to archived news reports.

Pike's trial attorneys had tried to mitigate her crimes by describing Pike as a cast-off child from a dysfunctional family who bounced between her divorced parents' houses depending on who was sick of her at the time, according to an archived news report in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Hansen told jurors that she was a bad mother who smoked pot with her daughter and even allowed Pike to have a live-in boyfriend at the age of 14. "I should be the one in her seat. I should be punished for her crime," Hansen said, according to the News-Sentinel.

A University of Tennessee police officer countered the sympathetic testimony, telling jurors that Pike returned to the scene of the crime after Slemmer's body had been found and "seemed amused."

"She was giggling," he testified, the newspaper said.

Pike's current attorneys arguethat had she been tried today, Pike never should have been sentenced to death because of her young age and mental illness at the time of the murder, and her disturbing history of being sexually abused as a child, starting before she could even talk. They believe she deserves life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On Pike's website, created by supporters who are arguing for her clemency, Pike says that she doesn't want to use her childhood trauma as an excuse for Slemmer's murder.

"There is no excuse for what I did ... I take full responsibility for my actions, and regret everything that happened that night," she says. "I only want my situation to be looked at now through the eyes of logic instead of anger and answered the question of if I deserve to die for a crime committed by three people."

Christa Gail Pike sues Tennessee officials over execution

In a lawsuit filed against the state in January, Pike's attorneys argue that Tennessee's lethal injection method is likely to cause her unnecessary pain and added terror and suffering, a violation of the U.S. Constitution's protections against cruel and unusual punishment.

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One of Pike's medical conditions,thrombocytosis, can lead to unusual bleeding and "death by drowning in one's own blood," they argue, citing a report by an anesthesiology expert. Additionally, Pike cannot request to be executed by the state's only other approved method − electrocution − because doing so would violate her Buddhist beliefs, which prevent her from "participating in any process leading to her own death," her attorneys argue.

They also say that the state could botch Pike's lethal injection, citing concerns over the state's new execution protocol.

Tennessee began using the new protocol in 2025, three years after the statehalted all executionsover a "technical oversight" in the lethal injection ofdeath row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith. The new lethal injection protocol usesthe single drug pentobarbital, as opposed to three drugs under the previous method.

Pike's attorneys cite a number of "botched" executions using only pentobarbital,including that of Byron Blackin Tennessee for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and her two daughters in 1988.

Reporters who witnessed the execution,including one from the Tennessean, reported that Black appeared to be in pain and distress during the lethal injection, which is required to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution.

"It's hurting so bad," Black told his spiritual adviser at one point during the execution, the Tennessean reported.

Pike's attorneys slammed the state's new lethal injection protocol as being "plagued with the same issues that have marked botched executions for decades: secrecy, intentional omission, inattention to detail, and untrained and unlicensed prison personnel attempting to fill medical role."

What does the state say about Pike's lawsuit

Regarding Pike's arguments about cruel and unusual punishment, established case law says that "the Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death" and that "some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution − no matter how humane," according to the state's response to Pike's lawsuit filed on Thursday, March, 19.

The state also defended its lethal injection protocol, citing "the overwhelming history affirming the use of lethal injection generally and pentobarbital specifically."

Besides, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said that Pike "carried around a piece of Colleen Slemmer's shattered skull in her pocket and showed it to her friends as a trophy after luring Colleen into the woods to torture and murder her."

"Pike has offered nothing but speculation that the well-established, constitutional lethal injection method poses any unique risk in her case," he said in a statement to USA TODAY. "We wish Pike's commitment to the sanctity of life had arrived in time to save Colleen Slemmer."

Slemmer's mother, May Martinez, has been vehement in her support of the death penalty for Pike. She has fought for decades to obtain the last remaining piece of her daughter's skull so that it can be buried with the rest of the teen's remains; investigators have been holding it as evidence in the case.

"My heart breaks every single day because I keep reliving it and reliving it, and I can't no more, and I want this to happen before I die,"Martinez told WBIR-TVin 2021.

"There's not a day goes by that I don't think about Colleen or how she died and how rough it was," Martinez continued. "I just want Christa down so I can end it, relieve my daughter, so she finally can be resting."

How many women have been executed in the U.S.?

Just 18 women have been executed in the United States since 1976, compared to 1,623 men, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That means women represent just 1% of all modern U.S. executions.

Pike is not only the only woman on Tennessee's death row, but she's among just 48 female death row inmates in the nation. That's compared to a male population just under 2,100 − roughly 2%.

The last execution of a woman in the United States was that ofAmber McClaughlin in 2023. McClaughlin, who was the first transgender person executed in the nation, was convicted as a man of raping and fatally stabbing 45-year-old Beverly Guenther on Nov. 20, 2003. Guenther was McLaughlin's ex-girlfriend.

How many women has Tennessee executed?

Citing the Death Penalty Information Center, Pike's attorneys say thatonly three womenhave ever been executed in Tennessee.

They list the hangings of three Black women in 1807, 1808 and 1819, though they didn't identify their crimes. Only one of the women's names is known: that of Molly Holcomb in 1807. Two of them are listed as slavesby deathpenaltyusa.org, which names the crimes as murder, though many slaves were unjustly killed themselves over false accusations or for no reason at all.

Pike is both the last person in Tennessee sent to death row for a crime they committed when they were 18 and is the last woman sentenced to death in the state,reported the Tennessean.

Contributing: Evan Mealins and Kelly Puente, The Tennessean

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers breaking news, cold cases and executions for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Tennessee plans rare execution of a woman. She's fighting back.

byNeo

in

March 21, 2026

Tennessee plans rare execution of a woman. She's fighting back.

Christa Gail Pikewas just 18 years old when she committed a crime that dominated headlines for years: She tortured and mu...

Read More