by Bob Herbert

About the author: Bob Herbert is a nationally syndicated columnist.

Texas’s bloodthirsty criminal justice officials have a dilemma. A Bible-quoting, Jesus-loving, reasonably normal looking woman named Karla Faye Tucker has been sentenced to death. Ordinarily the death penalty is no big deal in Texas, where liberals are required to carry visas and compassion is virtually illegal. It’s a state that has shown itself perfectly willing to execute the retarded and railroad the innocent. But the scheduled execution of Ms. Tucker is another matter. Even in Texas, government officials are squeamish about zapping a woman.

As journalist Sam Howe Verhovek has noted in a New York Times article, Texas has not executed a woman since 1863, “when Chipita Rodriguez was put to death for murdering a horse trader.&rdquo...