Execution of Karla Faye Tucker

Date: February 3, 1998 • Location: Washington, United States

Despite a large international movement advocating the commutation of her sentence to life imprisonment, Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984.

In law, a commutation is the substitution of a lesser penalty for that given after a conviction for a crime. The penalty can be lessened in severity, in duration, or both. Unlike most pardons by government and overturning by the court, a commutation does not affect the status of a defendant's underlying criminal conviction.