Karla Faye Tucker (1959-1998)

    Tucker was born and raised in Houston, Texas, the youngest of three sisters. The marriage of her parents was very troubled, and her parents divorced when she was 10. By age 12, she had begun taking drugs and having sex; at age 14 she dropped out of school and followed her mother into prostitution. When she was in her early 20s, she met a man named Jerry Dean who introduced her to a man named Daniel Garrett, whom she started dating. After spending the weekend using drugs, Tucker and Garrett entered Dean's apartment around 3 a.m. on June 13, 1983, intending to steal a motorcycle he was restoring. During the burglary, Dean awoke, and Garrett struck him numerous times with a hammer before leaving to carry more motorcycle parts out. Tucker picked up a three foot pickax and began striking Dean before Garrett returned and dealt him a final blow to the chest. When Garrett left the bedroom again, Tucker noticed a woman who had hidden under the bed covers. The woman, Deborah Ruth Thornton, had gone to a party with Dean and ended up spending the night. Tucker proceeded to hit her repeatedly with the pickaxe, then embedded it in her heart. Tucker would later testify that she experienced intense multiple orgasms with each blow. 

    Five weeks after the killings, police investigation led to the arrests of the two. In September 1983, they were indicted for murder and tried separately. Tucker entered a plea of not guilty and was jailed awaiting trial. Shortly after being imprisoned, she became a Christian and later married her prison minister, Dana Brown. Though the death penalty was hardly ever sought for female defendants, Tucker was sentenced to death in 1984. Between 1984 and 1992, requests for a retrial and appeals were denied, but Tucker requested that her life be spared as she was under the influence of drugs during the murders. Her plea drew support from abroad and also from some leaders of American conservatism, but the board still rejected her appeal. On February 2, 1998, Tucker was flown from the holding prison in Gatesville to the Huntsville Unit. The next day she was executed via lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:45 p.m. She was the first woman executed in Texas in 135 years, and the second woman executed in the United States since 1976. Source

Note: Coordinates withheld.

Acacia Section 14
Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery
Houston