Tucker speaks out on prime-time TV

Millions tuned in to watch CNN's Larry King interview with Karla Faye Tucker

Karla Faye Tucker, 38, is on death row for her part in a gruesome double murder 15 years ago. She is scheduled to be given a lethal injection on February 3. Recently she took part in a television interview with CNN's Larry King.

"Does it get worse every day?" asked King in the hour-long interview from Tucker's prison in Texas.

"No. It gets a little more exciting every day," she said.

Tucker, who became a Christian while serving her prison sentence, says she is not afraid of the pending execution.

Larry King: Does it get worse every day?

"Just to see how God is unfolding everything. Every day something new comes up and it's exciting to be a part of it because there's a lot going on, and it's going to affect a lot of people," she said.

"And it's a blessing to be a part of it, and it's exciting to know that God has a plan for this. I am not down. A little tired sometimes, but not down. Never pessimistic."

Asked how she could make sense out of what she had done, Ms Tucker said she could not.

She said: "I don't know how to make sense out of it except that the choices that I made to do drugs, to buckle to peer pressure and everything else - it was inevitable that something like that was going to happen in my life."

She said at first she had not felt guilty. In fact, she had been proud of what she had done and enjoyed the violence.

But she says she has found God during her time in prison. Tucker now says that she is a different person to the one that committed the crime and believes that her death sentence should be commuted because she is no longer a threat to society.

She maintains, however, that if her pleas were rejected, she would go into the death chamber "speaking out for the love of God".

"What I firmly believe is, if God is going to allow this to happen, he has a purpose for it. If he has a purpose for my life to continue on, he'll change the hearts of the governor and the parole board. He will help them to see what can be done through a commutation."