Around the Nation

Texas denies killer's bid for clemency

Despite pleas of mercy, including from Pope John Paul II, the gruesome nature of her crime left the Board of Pardons and Paroles with no qualms, the chair said. They turned down Tucker 16-0, with two members abstaining.

"There is no question as to their vote. There is no question as to how they feel," said chair Victor Rodriguez. "I, myself, have absolutely no quarrel with the decision to deny Ms. Tucker's request on all fronts."

Tucker, a former teen-age prostitute who found religion in prison, would be the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. Her execution is scheduled for today at 6 p.m.

In her appeal before the Supreme Court, Tucker's attorneys contend the commutation process is flawed and unconstitutional in part because of the consistent lack of favorable rulings.

All 76 requests since 1993 have been rejected, including 16 last year when the state executed a record 37 convicted killers.

"Texas has no mercy," said David Botsford, Tucker's lawyer. "The clemency process in this state is a farce."

AIDS-related deaths drop sharply in U.S.

According to the newest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released yesterday, the number of new AIDS cases dropped 12 percent during the same period, although the number of people living with AIDS rose 12 percent to 259,000.

The improvements in statistics for both deaths and severe illness are due to new forms of therapy, particularly the advent of protease inhibitors about three years ago. When a protease inhibitor is combined with two other drugs that block a viral enzyme called reverse transcriptase, concentrations of the virus in the blood are dropped to undetectable levels in most patients who can tolerate the drugs.

"We are at a very special moment in the epidemic of HIV/AIDS," epidemiologist Dr. Kevin DeCock of the CDC told the 5th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections.

Clinton plans rest on tobacco payments

He is gambling that the appeal of having $65.5 billion to spend on the programs will prod Congress into moving ahead with a deal that leverages payments out of the tobacco industry.

But some members of Congress are already predicting Clinton's payment strategy will fall flat. As a result, the money for his initiatives would likely have to come from cuts in spending, and the size of the initiatives would be scaled back.

02-03-98