Karla Faye Tucker Executed

Karla Faye Tucker died at around 7:45 PM EST on Tuesday of lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas. The Pope did what he could do. The crowd that held a candlelight vigil outside Tucker's cell Tuesday night did what it could do. Pat Robertson did what he could do, airing an interview with Tucker on "700 Club" Tuesday in which the born-again Christian said that God, not the legal system, was deciding her fate. Texas Governor George W. Bush declined to do all he could do, which was offer a hopeless 30-day stay of execution after the Supreme Court twice turned down her appeal. "God bless Karla Faye Tucker," Bush said at a press conference announcing his decision to abide by the finding of the courts, "and God bless her victims and their families."

Tucker's many defenders were ardent, but in the end the law proved equally so. Karla Faye Tucker, despite her professed moral and religious restoration, was a brutal double murderer. For that she died.