The People v. Karla Faye Tucker "A Question of Mercy: Should Karla Faye Tucker Die?" The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole rejected Karla Faye Tucker's latest appeal for clemency and a commutation of her sentence from death to life in prison on February 2, 1998, the eve of her scheduled execution by lethal injection. When Tucker's petition for a stay of her execution was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court the next day, her death sentence seemed imminent. Karla Faye Tucker's case has captured national attention and has stirred various opinions regarding the use of the death penalty and the need for mercy in rehabilitation of criminals in our country. Here is what a few Court TV viewers had to say about the Karla Faye Tucker case: "I feel Karla Faye Tucker shouldn't be executed on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Yes, she did commit murder, but that was 14 years ago. I believe that yes, people can and do change. Karla Faye Tucker is one of those changed people. Who are any of us to kill Karla? Aren't we then too committing murder? After all, someone will be killing and someone will be killed." --Jodie Witt, Stanley, WI "I sure as the pickax was killing her [Karl Aye Tucker's] victims, they too pleaded for their lives and they too were denied. I think the only hope she [Tucker] has is to know that she will be with her Lord, now that she has accepted Christ as her Savior. And she has a debt to pay. If you ask what good can come from this death, I would reply that maybe if people took the death penalty more seriously, then we might cut back crime a little at a time. My only regret is that people sit on death row too long." --Anonymous "Karl Aye Tucker should fry! Anyone who commits such crimes as murder should die, not humanely (like lethal injection or gassing), but in a way that will make them suffer like their victims. Perhaps if death sentences were carried out in public people would begin to rethink committing such an atrocious act." --Anonymous "If the death penalty is to be used then it should be swift. To execute Karla Faye Tucker after 14 years is the same atrocity she committed. Commute her to life; she could better be an example to others to show one can turn his or her life around. Isn't that what we want our system to do?" --Gail Young-Schindler, Sebring, Fl. "We feel that if Karla Faye is sharing the good news with people in jail, her death penalty should be reprieved. She can serve a purpose in jail." --Anonymous Apparently, Christian fundamentalists feel that it doesn't matter who you hurt or what you've done, only if you agree with their views. They'll trash a teenage kid for smoking pot, and let a monster like Karla Faye Tucker loose because she has come over to their way of thinking. I feel that is disgusting, hypocritical, and unethical. The execution is not a debate over the death sentence, it's an argument over whether you agree with the self-serving Christian right." --Warren Hitchcock, East Aurora, NY "I am glad the State of Texas has not agreed to spare Karla Faye Tucker. The message that type of decision would send to the women of Texas is that it is okay to do criminal acts as long as we can bat our feminine eyelashes and claim to love God. She committed an act of absolute unmerciful brutality and her life should be taken." --Miracle Bennett, Lancaster, TX "I consider myself to be a religious person in that I believe in a higher being. However, there is something about Karla Faye Tucker's argument that befuddles me. Karla and her team are desperately trying to spare Karla's life because she allegedly "found the Lord." Karla had this to say about death: 'Man can take the physical body but he can't take the soul. I know that I'll be going home to be with my Lord.' If Karla does in fact harbor this attitude, would it not stand to reason that, based upon her comments alone, she should be ready and willing to 'be with her Lord?' It is abundantly obvious that her comments contradict her actions. Am I wrong? Or do I have a warped take on religion?" --Sheldon Beatty, Greensboro, NC "I believe that in the case of Texas vs. Karla Faye Tucker that she did deserve the death penalty but I don't feel that it is right to make somebody wait over 10 years on death row. To me that is inhumane." --Deborah Davidson, Rockhold, KY "On February 3, Karla Faye Tucker will be dead, O.J. will be playing golf and Bill Clinton still in office and lying. Justice??? There is none!!!" --Everett Moore, Cottonwood, AZ "It's insane to me that people on death row (and they're only there because of terrible crimes they've committed) all of a sudden "find God". Isn't it too bad that they don't find Him along the way - the way most of us do. I'm sorry I'm sound so cold, but I did watch the gentleman in the wheelchair who'd lost his wife [victim Deborah Thornton], and I feel a heck of a lot more sorry for him than I do for Karla. She made her choice, and for her to tell us what a terrible life she led - believe me, we all have had problems in our lives, and most of us do not go around killing people. Only a very small percentage of people do. So give that poor gentleman who lost his wife, and whoever else lost someone, a break. Carry out the jury's sentence. That's what Karla deserves. Pray that God forgives her. It was her decision, no one else's. I don't think I'm as cold as I sound but I don't know any more. I'm just getting tired of these people [on death row] asking for mercy. They should have mercy by not doing these things to good people who never asked for trouble." --Elaine Holmes, Kissimmee, Fl "If Karla Faye Tucker was a man there wouldn't be all of this hype about the execution. She should have saved herself before she decided to swing the pick. I vote to execute without hesitation." "Cary" of Indiana "Nothing in the Bible says that we should not be punished for what we have done. I am as happy as can be that Karla Faye Tucker says that she is a Christian. Again, she should be held accountable for what she has done. God can forgive her, but He does not take away the penalty for what she has done." --Rev. Jerome Johnston, Opelika, AL "Karla Faye Tucker had her day in court. She was found guilty of her crimes and sentenced to death. To stay her execution in February would be an act of discrimination to all of those individuals awaiting death row. She was lucky to have 14 years in which to change her life. Tucker's victims did not have that opportunity. Their last breath of life was taken away from them when she dove the pick ax into their bodies continuously while she had her orgasms." --E.L. Hughes, Glendale, CA Read the Background of this Case. Excerpts of Karla Faye Tucker's letter to Gov. Bush (as published in The Houston Chronicle) Karla Faye Tucker's Writ of Habeas Corpus