Evangelicals May Rethink Views on Capital Punishment
By GUSTAV NIEBUHR - The New York Times

Efforts to win clemency for Karla Faye Tucker, the convicted murderer executed in Texas on Tuesday evening, became such a cause among some influential evangelical Christians that some say her case might prompt reconsideration of the staunch support for the death penalty among many in that group.

"It's no secret that evangelicals have been stalwarts behind the death penalty," said the Rev. Richard Cizik, a policy analyst at the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 42,000 churches. But he said the execution could trigger "a certain moral revulsion" among many evangelicals "because she is a woman of such obvious spiritual change."

Ms. Tucker, convicted of killing two people with a pickax in 1983, had appeared in nationally broadcast television interviews, declaring that Christian faith had transformed her life and would do the same for others. Her testimony struck a chord among many born-again Christians, touching off a debate about where justice should end and mercy begin.

"Evangelical Christians have connected personally with somebody on death row," said Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief of Sojourners, a religious magazine that focuses on social issues. Death penalty opponents like himself, he said, "haven't had an opening like this in a very long time."

But others said they were less sure that concern for Ms. Tucker represented anything other than interest in an articulate, highly publicized inmate.

Yet, no less a figure than television evangelist Pat Robertson called for sparing Ms. Tucker's life. "There are times when justice must be trumped by mercy," he wrote in an opinion article in December. Robertson also told an interviewer on the CBS program "60 Minutes" that Gov. George W. Bush of Texas should commute Ms. Tucker's sentence.

"She's paid the price and God forgave her and so do I," said Robertson, who said he supported the death penalty in general.

Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network played an important role in creating awareness of Ms. Tucker, whom it first interviewed in 1993. Exposure to her had an impact on the conservative Christians who make up much of Robertson's audience. Tuesday, the network's Internet site surveyed its users, asking them to respond to the question, "Has your view on the death penalty changed since hearing the Karla Faye Tucker story?"

By late afternoon, more than 1,300 people had responded, with 34 percent saying the case had changed their view, while 39 percent said it had not. It was not clear how the views had changed.

Before her execution Tuesday, at 7:45 Eastern Time, the network also ran what it said might be Ms. Tucker's last interview. According to a transcript, she said the attention to her case served an evangelistic purpose: "God has given me a great big open door to share the love of Jesus and I'm going to do it."

As a public figure, Ms. Tucker seemed strikingly different from other death row inmates. "To hear of the change in her life is what brings us out of the woodwork," said E. Brandt Gustafson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters, which represents more than 1,000 Christian radio and television broadcasters.

In watching Ms. Tucker's interviews, Gustafson said he became convinced that she "is a different person than the one who used that pickax." But Gustafson, who wrote Bush asking for clemency for Ms. Tucker, said he did not know whether attention to her case among evangelicals would carry over to other capital punishment cases. "Our people, of course, are generally biblically for the death penalty," he said, referring to their belief that the Bible provides for the use of capital punishment.

Still, many influential individuals and religious organizations declined to speak out on Ms. Tucker's case. The Christian Coalition released a statement saying its members "may hold a variety of positions" on the issue, but that the organization did not view it as "a formal policy matter."

Dr. James Dobson, the Christian psychologist whose "Focus on the Family" radio program has a national audience, has not taken a position on it, either, a spokesman said.

In addition, some have wondered whether sympathy for the 38-year old Ms. Tucker stemmed in part from the fact that she is a young, white woman. Pat Nolan, senior vice president of Prison Fellowship Ministries, which provides counselling and Bible studies in prisons, said that question was raised on a radio call-in show in which Nolan participated Monday. "That's not why people like Pat Robertson and me are doing this," he said.

A legacy of the case, Nolan said, will be "a lot of conversations around the dinner table and hopefully in the pews. I know many churches have Bible studies, so when they come to verses about crime and God's judgment and man's judgment, I hope this will continue to be discussed and prayed about."

Wallis, the Sojourner editor who is a founder of Call to Renewal, a movement that seeks common ground between religious conservatives and liberals on social issues, said that the next step "is for Christians to apply that same compassion to a young black man who's had a conversion to Islam." Wallis said he thought that was possible.