We the people of the United States in order to form a safer and more perfect union are no longer burdened with the keeping of a murderer. Karla Tucker was the center of much attention as the first woman to be put to death in Texas since the Civil War. Much was made of her subsequent conversion to Christianity and the "goodness" in her heart.
Little was made of her choice to leave a pickax through the heart of her victim. Few likely remember the twelve citizens who were faced with making the decision about Karla's fate. No contrast has been made between those twelve and the twelve who, in choosing not to make a decision, spared the life of Terry Nichols.
The devil, as they say, is in the details. Tucker was a cold blooded murderer. Was she beyond reform? People will argue this for years. Should George W. Bush have spared her life? Should any single man be given this power or responsibility?
Every couple of years as November rolls around we are inundated with cries about candidates who are "soft on crime." To date no candidate has run based on their having administered the lethal drug mixture to a condemned prisoner. Plenty have been run about an opponent's being soft and releasing prisoners early.
Dead Men Walking was an excellent movie. Anyone who unequivocally says we need the death penalty should see it. The ending was too much for me. I haven't seen it and I won't.
April 19, 1995
Few events of this decade will touch us like what happened this day.