February 4, 1998
Karla Faye Tucker is dead. She was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas yesterday, and pronounced dead a 6:45pm Central Standard Time. Though the woman who brutally axed two people no longer exists, the controversy around her execution rages on.
The Crime
In 1983, Karla Faye Tucker and her partner committed two brutal murders in Houston, Texas.
Claiming she was under the influence of three days of drugs and alcohol, the woman who had
been a teenage prostitute repeatedly drove a pickax into the body of her victims - a total
of 57 times. According to court records, her arms were so fatigued after the numerous
whacks that she could not finish off her second victim - her male partner performed the
deed. Tucker claimed to have had an orgasm with each swing of the pickax as it
punctured the bodies of her victims. All this was committed during a robbery.
Death Row Conversion
The controversy in this case, though, is the fact that many people were calling for
clemency. Not because new evidence had sparked questions about her guilt, but rather
because she had become a born-again Christian.
Backing Ms. Tucker up in this request are people such as the Pope. Even televangelist Pat Robertson, who generally doesn't seem to sympathize with murderers, suggested that Tucker had experienced a true conversion to Christianity, and therefore, was a changed woman who deserved the sparing of her life. Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network website was devoted to her. While I understand the Pope's concern - he universally petitions for life over death - I'm puzzled by the others whose whole case is based on the idea that Tucker has embraced Christianity. What difference does that make to whether she deserves to die? How many death row inmates have experienced similar conversions? What about Muslims, Hindus and even Atheists? How does a new-found belief in God equate to the sparing of one's life?
Sex Sells
Though all seeking leniency can deny it, it seems evident that the only reason this is
even a question is because Tucker is a woman. For some reason, many who normally endorse
capital punishment are squeamish at the idea of executing a woman. With Tucker's
execution, she was the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War in 1863.
History shows, though, that the death penalty is not evenly distributed. While women represent the quickest growing population in prisons, they are seemingly safe from paying the ultimate price for their crimes. Susan Smith, the woman who drove her two children into a lake while leaving them strapped in their car seats, apparently wasn't worthy of the death penalty. Yet, is there a more heinous crime than a mother killing her two children, slowly, because her boyfriend didn't like children?
Equal Pay, Equal Punishment
If we can't execute a woman, especially one who ruthlessly ripped into people with a
pickax, then we can't put them in combat; we can't let them fly bombers; we can't let them
officiate in the NBA; we can't give them the equality they demand and deserve.
Whether the murderer is man or woman, black or white, rich or poor, Christian or Hindu, famous athlete or unknown pauper, the punishment must be the same, it must be consistent and it must take place. Not because it is a deterrent but because it is a just punishment for some crimes.
Copyright © 1998 by Hugh Faulkner
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