[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 4 (Monday, February 2, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S248-S249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     EXECUTION OF KARLA FAYE TUCKER

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I see the Senator from Texas. I would ask 
him, although it would elicit probably too long a response, if he has 
ever done anything that is really politically stupid. And I am sure he 
has either knowingly or not knowingly--as I am about to do--done 
something that would fall into the category of political stupidity.
  Tomorrow an execution is scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. in the 
State of Texas. The young lady's name is Karla Faye Tucker. It happens 
we have an individual we know in common, so I became somewhat familiar 
with this case, and I will just give a thumbnail sketch as to what 
happened.
  Karla Faye Tucker, when she was a very, very small child, went into 
heroine at age 10. She is the daughter of a prostitute. Karla Faye went 
into prostitution when she was 13 years old. She never had a childhood, 
I guess we could say. Fourteen years ago, while living in a drug cult, 
an individual on a motorcycle came riding into her living room, 
dripping oil and breaking things and stealing things and rode out. And 
the next day, Karla and an accomplice broke into the apartment of the 
motorcycle rider, who was in bed with a girl, and murdered both of 
them--a brutal murder.
  I do not think there is anyone in the Senate who has a stronger 
record and background in punishment as a deterrent to crime than I 
have, nor is there anyone here who has been more active in establishing 
stronger death penalties than I have. The Furman case took place in 
1972, and that is what struck down most of the States' capital 
punishment laws. I was in the State Senate at that time, and for 5 
consecutive years I was the author of the capital punishment bill in 
the State of Oklahoma. I have always felt that punishment should be 
severe, it should be swift, and it should be equal.
  We had a person who became very famous after 15 years on death row, 
Roger Dale Stafford, who brutally murdered nine Oklahomans. This guy 
was left on death row for 15 years. No one ever questioned that he was 
guilty. He never had any remorse. He just sat there and got fat. He 
gained 100 pounds while he was in there watching color TV. I have often 
said the longer the length of time between the conviction, the sentence 
to death and the carrying out of that sentence, the less that 
punishment serves as a deterrent to crime. So I have always felt that 
punishment should be carried out immediately.
  But as I watched developments unfold with Karla Faye Tucker, I came 
to the conclusion that I have reached in a very unusual way. It is 
something I never thought I would do. It occurred to me that if Carla 
Faye Tucker had been a man, Carl Tucker, already either he would have 
been executed or would have been commuted to life and we would never 
have even known about it. Nobody would have cared.
  The controversy that has been stirring around this--which I think 
probably would have gotten a lot more controversial if it had not been 
for the sex scandal that has dominated the media in recent days--was, I 
think, primarily because Karla Faye Tucker is a woman. It would not 
have happened if Karla Faye Tucker had not been a woman. Now there is 
all the public and

[[Page S249]]

political pressure to execute this person for this heinous crime she 
committed that I don't think there would be if she had not been a 
woman.
  I took the time a few weeks ago through the Richmond Law Review to 
check to see how many cases have been commuted to life imprisonment 
from death row since the Furman case of 1972. I found that there have 
been 76 cases. I have not reviewed all of these cases because I have 
not had the time to do it, but I did look at several of them. I found 
that there are a lot of circumstances in the Tucker case that were 
similar to those which caused these other cases to be commuted, 76 of 
them since 1972. And I will use as an example, in the State of Georgia, 
William Neil Moore whose sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
  There were several reasons, but the four that kept coming up in his 
case were, No. 1, an exemplary prison record; No. 2, a strong feeling 
and expression of remorse for the crime he committed; No. 3, a 
religious conversion; and, No. 4, pleas from the families of the 
victims of the crime for clemency. I looked at Karla's case to find 
that all four of those are there, but it is much more so than it was in 
the case of William Neil Moore whose sentence was commuted to life 
imprisonment.
  In the Tucker case, it is not just the sister of one of the victims 
and the brother of the other, but three of the four prosecutors who 
have made a plea for clemency. The homicide detective, J.C. Moser, the 
guy who put her away, has quite a passionate story that he tells on how 
he has never felt any kind of remorse for anyone he has sent up and now 
he is lined up with several others. Even the prison guards have 
actually passed a petition around asking for clemency.
  I have a letter here I just received this morning from Mr. W.C. 
Kirkendall, who is from Seguin, Tx. I will read the first and last two 
sentences of this letter. This is a letter of December 9 to Governor 
Bush. ``I have been a prosecutor since 1984, favor the death penalty in 
the appropriate cases and have prosecuted many people who I believe 
deserved the ultimate penalty that society can inflict.''
  The last paragraph says, ``In sum, there is nothing that her 
execution will accomplish and much that commuting her sentence to life 
will do to show both the efficacy and justice of the Texas death 
penalty system. Please spare her life.''
  In this letter he goes into all kinds of detail as to how strong he 
feels about the death penalty and why he would be asking the Governor 
for an exception in this case.
  Having looked at this, I think there can be a case made that if Karla 
Faye Tucker had been Carl Tucker, there would not have been all of the 
public and political pressure applied to demand the death penalty.
  We went through something very similar in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma 2 
years ago we had the most cruel, I guess, mass murder or terrorist act 
in the history of America when 168 innocent Oklahomans were murdered. 
And Timothy McVeigh went through the necessary trials, and they found 
him to be guilty, and they gave him the death sentence. And then Terry 
Nichols, who was an accomplice in the case, went through the trial, and 
they did not give him the death penalty.
  I never try to second-guess what juries do. I had an experience 
myself back in the 1970's after the Furman case. I was in the State 
Senate, and I was the author of the death penalty bill, and I was 
called for jury duty. There I was. And it was a murder case. And so 
when they were trying to decide whether or not we should qualify as 
jurors, they asked me a series of questions. I said, ``Look, I can save 
you a lot of time. I am a member of the State senate. I am the author 
of the death penalty bill. I already know this guy is guilty. I have 
been reading about it, and the guy ought to fry.''
  They did not disqualify me, and I ended up being the chairman of the 
jury that acquitted him. So a long time ago I stopped trying to second-
guess the decision. Anyway, in the case of Terry Nichols, they did not 
do that. I wondered quite a bit since this case came up if Terry 
Nichols had been a female, would there have been so much pressure 
applied to everyone who would be listening to make sure that Terry 
Nichols got the death penalty because we didn't want an exception being 
made because Terry Nichols might have been a woman.

  And so I look at what's happened. Just a few minutes ago, the Texas 
Pardons and Parole Board made a decision, and I think it was a decision 
that we all knew they would make, that they would deny any clemency to 
Karla Faye Tucker. In fact, a guy named Victor Rodriquez--I do not 
happen to know him, he is the chairman of the Texas Pardons and Parole 
Board--said way back on the 6th of January on the ``Rivera Live'' show 
that it did not make any difference what they came up with, that he was 
not going to be willing to offer commutation to Karla Faye Tucker. And 
the commutation petition was not even filed until January 22. So that 
decision has been already made. It was a done deal. And, of course, 
they came out and said she should not be granted clemency.
  I do know Governor Bush. He is a very fair and very compassionate 
individual. I have looked at the constitution of the State of Texas. It 
is a little bit different. It gives a lot more power to the Pardons and 
Parole Board than some of the other States, but in the case of the 
Texas Pardons and Parole Board, after they have said they would deny 
clemency, article 4, section 11, of which I will read one sentence that 
is significant, says:

       The Governor shall have the power to grant one reprieve in 
     any capital case for a period not to exceed 30 days.

  All Governor Bush can do right now is to make that recommendation. 
And during that time he would be able to look at some of these cases. 
What I think I would do, if I were the Governor of Texas, and knowing 
what I know so far, is go ahead and grant that 30 days reprieve; 
nothing would really be lost by that, and then in the meantime during 
that period of time I would send for--in fact, I would be glad to send 
them to him--the 76 cases in America where clemency has been offered in 
the form of commutation of a death sentence into life imprisonment and 
then look at the standards to see if those standards are not at least 
met or exceeded by Karla Faye Tucker. I think he would be able to do 
that.
  In the absence of that, of course, tomorrow at 6 o'clock Karla Faye 
Tucker will be executed. I hate to think that we would wake up on 
Wednesday morning and go back and start researching and find that those 
standards were at least met or exceeded. I guess we could call this 
gender backlash.
  The other day I was watching someone on TV--I cannot remember who it 
was right now, but they said on the 3d of February at 6 o'clock Karla 
Faye Tucker will be executed in Texas and O.J. Simpson will be playing 
golf.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.

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