Sir, - While I am totally opposed to capital punishment and mourn the loss of all life, I feel the recent clamour of protest over the execution of Karla Faye Tucker went overboard.
European Foreign Affairs Ministers (our own David Andrews among them) and the Pope voiced their opposition to the sentence. Yet these same people have kept their silence on countless occasions in the past when mere men (usually coloured) have been faced with the same grim predicament.
While one can scarcely blame the media for the huge coverage this story received, the manner in which politicians jumped on the humanity bandwagon was all too typical.
The perpetrator in this case was neither insane nor a minor. Why, then, should she have been treated any differently from the countless unfortunate human beings who have been similarly executed in the "Land of the Free"?
Murder is no less a crime because it is committed by a woman. - Yours, etc., Gearoid O'Dowd,
Clybaun Road,
Galway.