The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.6           February 16, 1998 
 
 
Execution In Texas Sparks Debate  

BY LEA SHERMAN
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection here February 3. Her case received national and international publicity.

Tucker admitted to killing of a Houston couple in June 1983, but asked for clemency on the basis that she became rehabilitated as a result of a religious conversion in prison.

In the months and weeks leading up to the execution a growing number of people spoke out against it. Polls run in the Houston Chronicle indicated for the first time that less than a majority supported her execution. Some of this reflected heightened sentiment against the breakneck pace of executions - 37 in this state last year alone. But among the voices raised on Tucker's behalf were some who support the death penalty. This included Pat Robertson, a rightist politician and founder of the Christian Coalition. "I believe in the death penalty," he said on television. "I believe it's just and fair, but there are times that mercy overwhelms justice," arguing for an exception in Tucker's case.

Texas governor George W. Bush attempted to portray himself as someone committed to an equal application of the law for men and women. Some feminists echoed that line. In a featured column in the Houston Chronicle Robyn Blumner, former director of Florida's American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), wrote in favor of Tucker's execution. "Even in the chamber of death, it seems sexism is quite alive... As much as I am opposed to the death penalty, it should show no gender bias. Equality in life presumes equality in death."

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously February 2 to deny Tucker's petition for clemency. She was executed the next day as hundreds of both supporters and opponents of the death penalty demonstrated outside the prison

Lea Sherman is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 15 in Houston, Texas.  
 
 
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