Death Row: The Karla Faye Tucker Court Case

Various types of crimes have led many women to death row such as Karla Faye Tucker, since the execution of North Carolina’s own Velma Barfield, who was executed in 1984. Also, Tucker becomes the second woman put to death in the United States since capital punishment was re-introduced in 1976. Fourteen years later, she was condemned to death in Texas, since Chipita Rodriguez was hanged for killing a horse trader in 1863, and Tucker became the first female to be executed in Texas since that time. The Dallas Morning News asserts that “Tucker, 38, was convicted of using a 3-foot-long pickax to hack Jerry Dean to death during a burglary at his Houston apartment in 1983. Also killed was an overnight guest, Deborah Thornton” (Hoppe). Karla life started

Hardened police officers were haunted for years afterward by the carnage” (Curtis). For a brief time, she might have gotten away with the murder, but her partner could not help bragging to their friends about what they had done. In September 1983, Tucker and Garrett were arraigned and tried separately for the murders. Indicted in Harris County, Texas, Tucker was accused for committing and attempting to commit robbery. The Encyclopedia of Murderers says that Tucker entered a plea of not guilty in the 180th District Court, the jury found her guilty of capital murder on April 19, 1984. While on death row, she was incarcerated at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas. Karla became the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the death row inmate 777 (“Karla”). On February 2, 1998, state authorities took her from Gatesville and transported her to the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville. Tucker’s last meal request consisted of a banana, a peach, and a garden salad with ranch dressing (“Karla”). Despite her claims that she was a born-again Christian, also confessed moral and religious restoration, Karla Faye Tucker was a still a vicious killer, and for that reason, she had to