[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             DEATH PENALTY

  (Ms. NORTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, tonight Karla Faye Tucker may well be 
executed. But whether Ms. Tucker lives or dies, her case is making the 
country think more reflectively about the death penalty.
  The moral bankruptcy of adopting death and violence to conquer death 
and violence has not been lost on our moral leaders, such as the 
Catholic Church, and the American people are beginning to appreciate 
the futility of execution. Given a choice, most people would choose 
life without parole, plus restitution to the victim's family, over the 
death penalty.
  In the Senate, there is a bill that few Americans would condone to 
impose the death penalty on the District despite a referendum and a 
council vote to the contrary.
  Karla Faye Tucker's Christian conversion has drawn her much support. 
May her faith convert us all from selective Christianity when it comes 
to the death penalty.

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