Why can't our sentence be commuted like Libby's?

When Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman executed in Texas, was sentenced to death, the jury was unaware of some mitigating circumstances that very well might have reduced the sentence to life in prison. When these "new facts" came to then Gov. Bush's attention, he turned away, claiming that he was bound to follow the courts' decisions. So says Sister Helen Prejean in her January 2005 article "Death in Texas" in the New York Review of Books.

At the time of Tucker's request for clemency, Bush openly mocked her. GOP presidential primary opponent Gary Bauer criticized Bush for his behavior. "I think it is nothing short of unbelievable that the governor of a major state running for president thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to put to death," said Bauer.

This is the same man who, as the decider, has chosen to spare Scooter Libby 30 months in jail. What would Karla Faye Tucker have given for another 30 months? Can we really suffer another 18 months of Bush/Cheney? Why can't we get our sentence commuted?

BOB WYNHAUSEN

Sandpoint