Karla Faye Tucker was a US citizen who was executed in 1998 for brutally hacking two people to death in Texas, during a botched robbery. She was the first woman to be executed in the US since 1984, and in Texas since 1863. The case led to a media frenzy, especially after Tucker embraced Christianity inside the prison. Pleading for clemency, she stated that she would never have committed such a heinous crime if she was sober. She also claimed that Christianity had transformed her, promising that she would make a constructive contribution in other people's lives if her sentence was commuted. Despite tremendous support from various important quarters, including politicians, religious leaders, activists and even the brother of one of the victims, all appeals for mercy were rejected and she was executed by lethal injection 14 years after committing the murders.
