Karla
Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection in Texas on this date, February 3,
1998. I will post information about her from Wikipedia and other links. Comrades
of Unit 1012 will post an article from
the Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff.
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Karla Faye Tucker
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Born
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November 18, 1959
Houston, Texas, U.S. |
Died
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February 3, 1998 (aged 38)
Huntsville, Texas, U.S. |
Criminal penalty
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Death by lethal injection
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Criminal status
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Executed on February 3, 1998
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Spouse(s)
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Reverend
Dana Lane Brown
Stephen Griffith (divorced)
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Parents
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Larry and Carolyn Tucker
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Conviction(s)
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Murder
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Karla Faye Tucker (November 18, 1959 – February 3, 1998) was the first
woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, and the first in Texas since 1863. She was convicted of murder in
Texas in 1984 and put to death fourteen years later. Because of her gender and
widely publicized conversion to Christianity, she inspired an unusually large national
and international movement advocating the commutation of her sentence to life
imprisonment, a movement which included a few foreign government officials.
Early
life
Karla
Tucker was born and raised in Houston, Texas, the youngest of three sisters.
Her father Larry was a longshoreman. The marriage of her parents was very
troubled, and Tucker started smoking with her sisters when she was eight years
old. At the age of 10, her parents divorced, and during the divorce
proceedings, she learned that she had been the result of an extramarital
affair. By age 12, she had turned to drugs and sex. When she was 14, she
dropped out of school and followed her mother Carolyn, a rock groupie, into
prostitution and began traveling with the Allman Brothers Band, The Marshall
Tucker Band, and the Eagles. At age 16, she was married briefly to a mechanic
named Stephen Griffith. In her early 20s, she began hanging out with bikers,
and met a woman named Shawn Dean and her husband Jerry Lynn Dean, who
introduced her to a man named Danny Garrett in 1981.
The
murders
After
having spent the weekend doing drugs with her boyfriend Danny Garrett and their
friends, Tucker and Garrett entered Jerry Dean's home around 3 a.m. on Monday
14 June 1983 intending to steal Dean's motorcycle. James Leibrant, a friend,
went with them to Dean's apartment complex. Leibrant reported that he went
looking for Dean's El Camino while Tucker and Garrett entered the apartment
with a set of keys that Tucker claimed Shawn Dean had lost and Tucker had
found.
During
the burglary, Tucker and Garrett entered Dean's bedroom, where Tucker sat on
him. In an effort to protect himself, Dean grabbed Tucker above the elbows,
whereupon Garrett intervened. Garrett struck Dean numerous times in the back of
the head with a hammer he found on the floor. After hitting Dean, Garrett left
the room to carry motorcycle parts out of the apartment. Tucker remained in the
bedroom.
The
blows Garrett had dealt Dean caused his head to become unhinged from his neck
and his breathing passages to fill with fluid. He began making a
"gurgling" sound characteristic of this type of injury. Tucker wanted
to "stop him from making that noise" and attacked him with a pickaxe.
Garrett then re-entered the room and dealt Dean a final blow in the chest.
Garrett
left the bedroom again so as to continue loading Dean's motorcycle parts into
his Ranchero. Tucker was once again left in the room and only then noticed a
woman who had hidden under the bed covers against the wall. The woman, Deborah
Thornton, had met Dean at a party earlier that afternoon. Upon discovering
Thornton, Tucker grazed her shoulder with the pickaxe. Thornton and Tucker
began to struggle, but Garrett returned and separated them. Tucker proceeded to
hit Thornton repeatedly with the pickaxe and then embedded the axe in her
heart. Tucker would later tell friends and testify that she experienced intense
multiple orgasms with each blow of the pickaxe.
The
next morning, a co-worker of Dean's who had been waiting for a ride entered the
apartment and discovered the victims' bodies. Investigation led to the arrests
of Tucker and Garrett.
Trial
In
September 1983, Tucker and Garrett were indicted and tried separately for the
murders. Tucker entered a plea of not guilty and was jailed awaiting trial.
Soon after being imprisoned, Tucker took a Bible from the prison ministry
program and read it in her cell. She later recalled, "I didn't know what I
was reading. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of my cell floor on my
knees. I was just asking God to forgive me." Tucker became a Christian in
October 1983. She later married her prison minister, the Reverend Dana Lane
Brown, and held her Christian wedding ceremony inside the prison.
Conviction
Though
the death penalty was hardly ever sought for female defendants, Tucker, along
with Garrett, was sentenced to death in late 1984. (Garrett died in prison of
liver disease in 1993.) She shared her Death Row cell at the Mountain View Unit
with her friend Pam Perillo, whose own sentence was eventually commuted to life
in prison.
Between
1984 and 1992, requests for a retrial and appeals
were denied, but on June 22, Tucker requested that her life be spared on the
basis that she was under the influence of drugs at the time of the murders, she
would not have committed the murders had she not taken drugs and she was now a
reformed person. Her plea drew support from abroad and also from some leaders
of American conservatism. Among those who appealed to the State of Texas on her
behalf were Bacre Waly Ndiaye, the United Nations commissioner on summary and
arbitrary executions; the World Council
of Churches; Pope John Paul II; Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi; the Speaker of the U.S. House
of Representatives Newt Gingrich;
televangelist Pat Robertson;
and Ronald Carlson, the brother of Tucker's murder victim Debbie Thornton. The
warden of Texas's Huntsville prison testified that she was a model prisoner and
that, after 14 years on death row, she likely had been reformed. The board
turned her down on 28 January 1998.
Execution
While
on death row, Karla Faye Tucker was incarcerated in the Mountain View Unit in
Gatesville, Texas. She became Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Death
Row #777.
On
February 2, 1998, state authorities took Tucker from the unit in Gatesville and
flew her on a TDCJ aircraft, transporting her to the Huntsville
Unit in Huntsville. Karla Faye Tucker's last meal request consisted of a
banana, a peach, and a garden salad with ranch dressing.
She
selected four people to watch her die which included her sister Kari Weeks, her
spouse Dana Brown, her close friend Jackie Oncken, and Ronald Carlson. At one
time Ronald Carlson had supported the execution but later after a religious
conversion decided that he opposed all executions. The witnesses for the
victims included Thornton's husband Richard, Thornton's only child William
Joseph Davis and Thornton's stepdaughter Katie. Tucker's execution was also
witnessed by members of TDCJ, Warden Bagget, and various representatives of the
media. Her last words were:
Yes sir, I would like to say to all of you — the Thornton family and Jerry Dean’s family — that I am so sorry. I hope God will give you peace with this. (She looked at her husband) Baby, I love you. (She looked at Ronald Carlson) Ron, give Peggy a hug for me. (She looked at all present weeping and smiling) Everybody has been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I am going to be face to face with Jesus now. Warden Baggett, thank all of you so much. You have been so good to me. I love all of you very much. I will see you all when you get there. I will wait for you.
She
was executed by lethal injection on February 3, 1998. As the lethal chemicals
were being administered she was praising Jesus Christ. Eight minutes after
receiving injection, she was pronounced dead at 6:45pm CST. She was the first
woman executed in the State of Texas in 135 years, when Chipita Rodriguez was executed by hanging
during the American Civil War.
She
is buried at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.
Aftermath
In
the year following her execution, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson
questioned Governor George W. Bush about how the Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles had arrived at the determination on her clemency plea. Carlson alleged
that Bush, alluding to a televised interview which Karla Faye Tucker had given
to talk show host Larry King, smirked and spoke mockingly about her. A full
length movie was released in 2004 about the life of Tucker entitled Forevermore
starring actress Karen Jezek.
The
captain of the "Death House Team," Fred Allen, was interviewed by
Werner Herzog for the 2011 documentary "Into the Abyss (film)." Within days
after Tucker's execution, one of over 120 he managed, he suffered an emotional
breakdown. He resigned his job, giving up his pension, and changed his position
on the death penalty. "I was pro capital punishment. After Karla Faye and
after all this, until this day, eleven years later, no sir. Nobody has the
right to take another life. I don't care if it's the law. And it's so easy to
change the law."
International
reactions
Tucker
gained international attention because she would be the first woman to be
executed in Texas since the Civil War and the first in the United States since
1984. Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro noted in a public speech that
capital punishment supporters outside a Texas prison had cheered when Tucker
was executed. "And we are on the threshold of 2,000 years of Christ!"
he exclaimed. In England, Bishop Richard Harries of the Diocese of Oxford
reported that a Gospel singer's rendition of "Amazing Grace" was
shouted down by cries of "Kill the bitch!" from the pro-death penalty
crowd that gathered outside of the prison.
Depictions
Music
- The Tomorrowpeople (1999). "America's Deathrow Sweetheart" (Gibson/Powerchurch) on the album Marijuana Beach [Olivia Records]
- Indigo Girls (1999). "Faye Tucker" (Ray) on the album Come on Now Social [Epic Records]
- Richard Dobson (1999). "Ballad of Chipita and Karla Faye" (Richard Dobson) on the album Global Village Garage [R&T Musikproduktion]
- Mary Gauthier (2001). "Karla Faye" (Mary Gauthier/Crit Harmon) on the album Drag Queens in Limousines [Munich Records BV]
- David Knopfler (2002). "Karla Faye" (David Knopfler) on the album Wishbones [Paris Records/Edel GmbH/Koch Entertainment]
Theatrical
plays, films, and television
- A Question of Mercy: The Karla Faye Tucker Story (1998), TV Documentary directed by Rob Feldman.
- Dead Woman Walking: The Karla Faye Tucker Story (1999), American Justice TV Episode Bill Kurtis/Towers Productions
- Crossed Over (2002), Film starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Diane Keaton.[1]
- Karla Faye Tucker: Forevermore (2004), Film directed by Helen Gibson. full video online
- "The Power of Forgiveness: The Story of Karla Faye Tucker" (2000) A powerful film on forgiveness, surrounding the story of Karla Faye Tucker, a murderer who was put to death by the state of Texas.
INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/karla.html
Karla Faye Tucker - her own thoughts.
On
January 18, 1998 Karla sent a letter to George W. Bush, the governor of Texas,
of which some extracts were published.
"I
am in no way attempting to minimize the brutality of my crime. It obviously was
very, very horrible and I do take full responsibility for what happened. I also
know that justice and law demand my life for the two innocent lives I brutally
murdered that night. If my execution is the only thing, the final act that can
fulfill the demand for restitution and justice, then I accept that. I will pay
the price for what I did in any way our law demands it."
"I
was advised by my attorneys to plead not guilty and I was trusting their legal
expertise. They knew I murdered Jerry and Deborah. I did not lie to them about
it. I am, in fact, guilty. Very guilty."
"I
used to try and blame my mother because she was my role model and she fashioned
and shaped me into what I was at an early age. . At 14 she took me to a place
where there was all men and wanted to ‘school me’ in the art of being a call
girl. I wanted to please my mother so much. I wanted her to be proud of me. So
instead of saying no, I just tried to do what she asked. The thing is, deep
down inside I knew that what I was doing was wrong. It may have been the norm
for the crowd I was in, but it was not the norm for decent, upstanding
families."
"I
no longer try to lay the blame on my mother or on society."
"I
don’t blame drugs either. When I say that I was out of it on drugs the night I
brutally murdered two people, I fully realize that I made the choice to do
those drugs. Had I chosen not to do drugs, there would be two people still
alive today. But I did choose to do drugs, and I did lose it, and two people
are dead because of me."
"I
did not plan on going over there that particular night to go into that
apartment to kill anyone. But that is beside the point. The fact is, we went
there, we went into the apartment, we brutally murdered two precious people,
and we left out of there and even bragged about what we did for over a month
afterward."
"It
was in October, three months after I had been locked up, when a ministry came
to the jail and I went to the services, that night accepting Jesus into my
heart.
When
I did this, the full and overwhelming weight and reality of what I had done hit
me. I began crying that night for the first time in many years, and to this
day, tears are a part of my life."
"I
also wanted to try and send some money out to one of my victim’s family members
(it was for Deborah’s son, for his schooling). When Ron Carlson came to me in
1992 and told me he had forgiven me for what I had done to his sister, I let
him know I was trying to get some money to his nephew. He told me not to. I
would only be hurting him if I did send the money to him. And he told me that
his nephew would not receive the money from me anyway because he wanted nothing
to do with me. I understand the pain and I did not push."
"Fourteen
years ago, I was part of the problem. Now I am part of the solution.
"I
have purposed to do right for the last 14 years, not because I am in prison,
but because my God demands this of me. I know right from wrong and I must do
right."
"I
feel that if I were in here still in the frame of mind I got arrested in, still
acting out and fighting and hurting others and not caring or trying to do good,
I feel sure you would consider that against me. I don’t really understand why
you can’t or won’t consider my change for the good in my favor."
"I
don’t really understand the guidelines for commutation of death sentences, but
I can promise you this: If you commute my sentence to life, I will continue for
the rest of my life in this earth to reach out to others to make a positive
difference in their lives."
"I
see people in here in the prison where I am who are here for horrible crimes,
and for lesser crimes, who to this day are still acting out in violence and
hurting others with no concern for another life or for their own life. I can
reach out to these girls and try and help them change before they walk out of
this place and hurt someone else."
"I
am seeking you to commute my sentence and allow me to pay society back by
helping others. I can’t bring back the lives I took. But I can, if I am
allowed, help save lives. That is the only real restitution I can give."
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