New movie based on a true story that rocked the world of capital punishment

Film Trailer ^ | Susan Zahn

[Susan Zahn]

Repentant PickAx Killer 'Karla Faye Tucker' Resurrected in New Film by Award Winning Filmmaker Helen Gibson.

[Susan Zahn]

The Road between Hollywood and Heaven just got shorter.

A petite woman with bright eyes and a warm smile, Karla Faye Tucker managed to focus attention on women, the death penalty and whether a repentant murderer deserves mercy. It was her conversion to Christianity and her prison ministering that led people from around the world to ask that her life be spared.

Tucker started using drugs when she was 8 years old. She turned to prostitution at 13. And by the time she turned 23 had killed two people with a pickax in Houston, Texas .

"This is the story you haven't heard", exclaims Helen. "There was this tremendous love story between Karla and prison minister Dana Brown that the world has yet to hear about, both Karla and Dana had a passion to serve God that's what drew them together, death row just happened to be the setting."

Some insiders predict a wave of New Testament- themed movies or uplifting films in general as a result of "The Passion of the Christ' box office success.

"Will there really be scriptural pictures - Old Testament, New Testament?" asked Peter Guber, a producer who formerly ran Sony Pictures Entertainment. "The answer seemingly is probably so."

That is 'good news' for Helen's production company Pulling Gs with two biblical features in development and a feature film looking for a distribution partner.

[Hank Rearden]

"Pick Axe Killer" says it all. I have no problem with her being wormfood, and no interest in any movie about it.

Whether she's in Hell or not, she's gone from here - which is good.

[Smokin' Joe]

Yeah. Sweet, loveable, Lizzie Borden type that she is. Do these people really want this type of person wandering the streets??? Their street?

[TheBigB]

Oh, she had such a warm smile. She couldn't have killed people with an axe.

Wait, she did. Never mind.

[Prime Choice]

If my memory is correct, this is the woman who murdered another person in cold blood by stabbing her to death as her victim begged for a swift death.

I trust the Good Lord to accurately judge her conversion. For my own part, I found her sincerity wanting.

[dfwgator]

Will they also make a movie about the mentally retarded guy that was executed in Arkansas under Clinton's watch?

[canalabamian]

I'm sure this will somehow be used as an anti-Bush propaganda piece since he was Governor and wasn't affraid to carry out her sentence.

[Paleo Conservative]

They left out the part about how she had orgasms while comitting those murders.

[Paleo Conservative]

Will they also make a movie about the mentally retarded guy that was executed in Arkansas under Clinton's watch?

He wasn't mentally retarded! He was brain damaged from a botched suicide attempt after he was cornered by the police. Just because he gave himself a lobotomy didn't make him less responsible for the murder he committed.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

She's been a cause-celeb for the Bush-haters for a while... ever since Bush mocked her in a '99 Talk magazine interview.

[canalabamian]

A good demonstration that he isn't affraid to make the right calls, tough (liberal trans: emotional) or not.

[xm177e2]

"Pick Axe Killer" says it all. I have no problem with her being wormfood

"Axe and ye shall receive"

Some anti-anti-Death Penalty protester had a sign with that text on it while people were arguing about whether to kill her.

[Prime Choice]

A summary of the case.

In 1984, Tucker was convicted of the brutal murders of her ex-lover, Jerry Lynn Dean, and his companion, Deborah Thornton and sentenced to the death penalty. During her trial, Tucker admitted that on June 13, 1983, she and her boyfriend at the time, Daniel Ryan Garrett, took a pickax and hacked Dean and Thornton to death while they were sleeping. (Garrett was also convicted of murder and sentenced to the death penalty. However, he died of liver disease while in prison in 1994.)

At the murder scene, investigators found the pickax still embedded in Thornton's chest. Tucker even boasted at her trial that she experienced an orgasm each time she plunged the ax down upon her victims. Back then, Tucker was a drug addict and prostitute who seemed unrepentant, and even proud, of her actions.

In various pleas to save her life, Tucker's supporters and lawyer claimed that Tucker, 38, was not the same woman who committed those brutal murders nearly 15 years ago. She was a born-again Christian, and with her "girl-next-door" attractiveness, sometimes it may seem hard to believe that she could have committed such gruesome murders. But Tucker and her lawyer, David Botsford, freely admitted her guilt. Because of her conversion to Christianity, apparent rehabilitation and virtually spotless disciplinary record while in prison, Botsford and other supporters believed that Tucker should be spared the death penalty. Tucker's detractors said that religious conversions for inmates are common and are not a legitimate basis for a pardon from the death penalty.

Curiously enough, every report I found on this case always referred to this murderer's beauty and "girl next door" attractiveness. So, in a nutshell, I believe it's fair to say that if this woman had been ugly as the south end of a northbound mule, this story would not have legs...irrespective of her alleged conversion and repentance.

[Texasforever]

Yep she is a Texas legend. She testified that she had an orgasm with every stroke of the pickax.

[cherry]

If you believe in God at all, then you must acknowledge that there is redemption ..and thru grace , all things are possible...

why have schools, churches, treatment centers, drug rehabs or AAA if you don't think people can change.....

Of all the miserable multiple rapist and murderers in this world, they just had to go after maybe one of the few that was salvagable...

Robert Yates killed probably 18 people, and even he is simply in for life....

I believe in the death penalty, but sometimes the way we apply it is insane....

[little jeremiah]

People can change, and even murderers can repent and surrender to God. That said, a sincere repentent murderer would not strive to avoid just punishment, but would feel so sorry about his or her crime that he/she would want to receive the punishment. I have read about one murderer who felt just that way.

Whether Tucker was sincerely repentent or not, she deserved execution, as all murderers do. That ones that receive only a prison sentence are under-sentenced. The under-use of the death penalty for murderers (and rapists, and child molesters) is one of the true crimes of our time.

Execution does save lives, prevents criminals from further criminal acts, and if employed properly, would cause wannbes to think twice.

[Prime Choice]

Of all the miserable multiple rapist and murderers in this world, they just had to go after maybe one of the few that was salvagable...

It would seem the Texas Parole Board did not concur with your sunny assessment of this murderer and thus did not recommend clemency to then-Governor George W. Bush.

Moreover, if George W. Bush had granted a pardon from the death penalty, this would would have been eligible for parole in 2003. Maybe you're okay with freeing someone who experienced orgasm in the act of murder. I for one am loathe to take that chance.

[cherry]

No....I would not want her free.....but her death proved nothing.....

I have no problem with Dubya not stopping her execution....it wasn't his call,IMO.... I am a big Dubya supporter....

if her death makes people feel wonderful, so be it....

[Ichneumon]

New movie based on a true story that rocked the world of capital punishment

When I saw this thread title, I thought it might be another "Passion" thread...

[weegee]

It will probably win some actress another Oscar before the film is even cast.