Karla Faye Tucker

The State of Texas, despite international pleas for clemency from numerous organizations -- and even the Pope -- executed Karla Faye Tucker in 1998. Since 1982, Texas has put to death over 300 people, more than twice the number of any other state, with over 100 of these executions occurring under the governorship of George W. Bush. This figure accounts for more than one-third of the 800 odd executions carried out nationwide since the 1977 reinstatement of the death penalty in the United States. In addition, Texas has executed at least seven juveniles and six inmates with mental retardation, and is six times more likely to execute an African-American convicted of killing a white than the reverse. The United States is the only NATO country that practices capital punishment, and does so in a manner that it widely considered to be inconsistent and racially biased. In a twenty-year period, 69% of all death penalty cases reviewed were overturned due to serious constitutional errors. With the advent of DNA testing, the number of individuals sentenced to death and later exonerated is so high that it has caused some states to impose a moratorium on executions pending a re-evaluation of the system. No study has ever shown capital punishment to have a deterrent effect upon crime.