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Reply-to: owner-umethnews@ecunet.org (United Methodist News list)
"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (594
notes).

Note 593 by UMNS on Feb. 5, 1998 at 17:21 Eastern (1575 characters).

CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally			66(10-21-71B){593}
         Nashville, Tenn. (614)742-5470  	Feb. 5, 1998

NOTE:  This sidebar accompanies UMNS story #65.

Tucker first woman executed
in Texas since Civil War

by United Methodist News Service

	Karla Faye Tucker, executed on Feb. 3 for hacking a man and woman to death
during a 1983 break-in, became the first woman executed in Texas since the
Civil War and the first nationwide since 1984.
	Worldwide publicity over Tucker's case, including pleas for mercy from Pope
John Paul II and TV evangelist Pat Robertson, focused on her transformation
from a drug-crazed teen-age prostitute to a soft-spoken, born-again Christian.

	The U.S. Supreme Court and Texas Gov. George W. Bush refused appeals to save
her life.
	Only 49 women are among 3,365 death row inmates nationwide.
	Nationally, since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to
resume, 431 men and one woman have been executed -– 144 of them in Texas, by
far the most active death penalty state.
	Nationwide, the first woman executed was Velma Barfield, a born-again
Christian who was put to death in North Carolina in 1984 for lacing her
boyfriend's food with rat poison.
	The United Methodist Church officially opposes capital punishment and urges
its elimination from all criminal codes. Official policy is made for the
church by a quadrennial legislative body known as the General Conference.  The
statement on capital punishment is included in the Social Principles,
Paragraph 68F of the church's  Book of Discipline.
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