The Ballad of Karla Faye Tucker

To elucidate the rise of the evangelical movement, Mark Beaver has taken a long, hard look at Pat Robertson’s campaign to save the life of convicted murderer Karla Faye Tucker, despite his previous, all-out support of the death penalty. Through deep, personal experience and careful research, The Ballad of Karla Faye Tucker takes big steps toward answering the question: why? Beverly Lowry, author of Crossed Over: A Murder, A Memoir

Since Karla Faye Tucker was executed in Texas a quarter-century ago, the United States has carried out more than a thousand executions, fifteen of which have been women. Yet none has commanded as much national or international attention as Tucker's. In this riveting and deeply personal book, Mark Beaver sets out to explore why. Touching on religion, politics, morality, and the sheer ineffability of why some stories rivet the nation while others are mostly ignored, Beaver has delivered a gem that succeeds in saying something new about capital punishment and something profound about our culture. David R. Dow, Cullen Professor at University of Houston Law Center and author of The Autobiography of an Execution

Mark Beaver has a question about Karla Faye Tucker and the evangelists who love her: ‘Who are these people?’ His answer interweaves rueful reflections on his own ‘Christ-haunted’ youth, many an observation as wry and hilarious as Roy Blount Jr.'s, and a story propelled by plot turns as visceral and strange as any in a southern Gothic novel. But The Ballad of Karla Faye Tucker is head-shakingly real. It’s also a fascinating examination of the way American evangelism does and does not fulfill its most cherished ideals: compassion, authenticity, transformation, and, above all, redemption. In the end the questions that infuse the story are the ones we should all be asking: 'What is the nature of forgiveness?’ ‘When have we atoned for our sins?’ ‘Who can be redeemed?’ ‘How far can God’s love reach?’ Julia Franks, award-winning author of Over the Plain Houses and The Say So