Linda Carty

For the Canadian sociologist, see Linda Carty (sociologist).
Linda Carty
Born Linda Anita Carty
(1958-10-05) 5 October 1958
Saint Kitts
Occupation Laborer.[1] Former primary school teacher. Former DEA Informant
Criminal charge Murder
Criminal penalty Death by lethal injection
Criminal status All appeals denied. No set execution date.
Spouse(s) Jose Corona
Conviction(s) Murder

Linda Anita Carty (born 5 October 1958) is a woman possessing both United States and British citizenship on death row in Texas. She was convicted and sentenced to death in February 2002 for the abduction and murder of 25-year-old Joana Rodriguez, in order to steal her newborn son.[2][3] Carty claims she was framed by drug dealers[4] in response to her work as an informant and has appealed her conviction. Her appeals have been unsuccessful to date,[5] but she launched a fresh appeal in 2015.[6] Barring the granting of clemency, she stands to become the first female British national to be executed since Ruth Ellis in 1955, and the first British black woman executed in more than a century.[7]

Early life and education

Born in St. Kitts to Anguillan parents,[8] Carty holds British citizenship as St. Kitts was a British colony at the time of her birth. She emigrated to the United States in 1982 and is a citizen of the United States.[9] Carty studied pharmacology at the University of Houston.[10][11]

Drug informant

In 1992, Carty was convicted of auto theft and impersonation of an FBI agent. She was sentenced to 10 years probation,[12] on the condition she would work as a drug informant.[13] While working as an informant, she provided information leading to two arrests.[13] Her services came to an end when she was arrested on drug charges.[13]

However, in media interviews Carty has claimed that she was recruited by a friend from the Houston Police Department and that her work for the DEA helped land seizures of thousands of dollars' worth of narcotics and led to the imprisonment of scores of dealers.[4]

The crime

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice:

On 16 May 2001, Carty and three co-defendants [Gerald Anderson, Chris Robinson, and Carlos Williams] invaded the home of a 25 year old female. The victim and her three-day-old baby were kidnapped and two other victims were beaten, duct taped, and left in the residence. The 25 year old female was hog-tied with duct tape, a bag was taped over her head, and she was placed in the trunk of a car. This victim died from suffocation.[1]

Investigation

Investigators initially suspected Carty after they discovered that she had told people she was going to have a baby despite not appearing pregnant.[14] While interviewing neighbors in the apartment complex, police heard from one neighbor that she sat with Carty in a car, saw a child's car seat in the car, and was told by Carty that she was pregnant; this was remarkable to the witness because Carty didn't appear pregnant. Police then telephoned Carty and asked her to meet with them. She told them that a car she had rented and her daughter's car may have been used in the crime. She was placed under arrest. Then she directed them to a location where both cars were found: the live baby was in one, and the suffocated victim was in the back of the other. Carty's fingerprints were in both cars. They found various items of baby paraphernalia.[2]

Trial

The following evidence was presented during the trial:

Conviction and appeals

Mountain View Unit, where Carty is held

Carty was convicted of murder on February 19, 2002. On February 21, she was sentenced to death by lethal injection.[2][16][17]

The imposition of a death sentence in Texas results in an automatic direct appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. This appeal was rejected on April 7, 2004. Carty then appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. This appeal was rejected on September 19, 2009. On 26 February 2010, Carty appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, in which the British government filed an amicus curiae brief[18] as a friend of the Court.[7][19][20] However, on May 3, 2010, the Court refused to review the case, denying certiorari.[21] The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has the option to recommend clemency to the Governor of Texas. However, such recommendations are rare.[22]

Defense claims

Carty, her lawyers and her supporters contend that she has been unjustly sentenced to death for a murder that she did not commit. Reprieve claims that her defence attorney did not present mitigating evidence.[19] They assert that no forensic evidence exists that places her at the scene of the crime,[4] although Carty's fingerprints were found in the car containing the victim's body.[2] Carty has claimed that she was framed by three men for her work as an informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration.[4][23] Carty stated that "...it was too difficult just to kill me, so they hatched this plot."[4] "Anderson, Robinson, and Williams, the other co-defendants in the kidnapping and murder, were given prison terms but none received the death penalty after testifying against Carty.[4] Baker Botts, the law firm handling Carty's appeal, have argued that her trial attorney, Jerry Guerinot, handled her defense in an incompetent manner.[9] Michael Goldberg of Baker Botts accuses Guerinot of failing to call any witnesses who might have persuaded the jury that she did not deserve execution.[7][9] In addition, they assert that Guerinot met with Carty for only one fifteen-minute interview. This has been rejected by Guerinot's co-counsel.[24] Carty also claims that on one occasion she was interviewed without counsel being present.[4]

US breach of international law

Under the terms of the Bilateral Convention on Consular Officers (1951) between the United States and the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom’s consular officials were entitled to be informed immediately upon her detention (art. 16(1) of the Convention). The authorities in Texas failed to inform the British Consulate until after Carty’s conviction and sentencing. The United Kingdom’s Consul General in Houston at the time, Paul Lynch has stated in an interview with the UK’s Channel 4 television, that this breach:[25]

“… made a material difference to the outcome of this case. If we had been allowed, and given the opportunity to support Linda Carty, if she had been given all the support to which she was entitled and which she deserved … something entirely different, I believe, would have happened at that trial and Linda Carty would not now be facing a death penalty.”

The United Kingdom made clear in its amicus curiae brief[18] in the US Supreme Court that it regards the US as having breached its obligations under international law. However, the United Kingdom lacks any legal forum in which to obtain redress for this breach.

Additional information

Carty's case received media attention in September 2009 when her image was placed on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square by her British supporters.[23][26] However, there has been little media coverage in the US.

Carty is presently being held at the Mountain View Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; the unit contains the state's female death row.[27]

On 7 November 2012, Carty's case was covered on This Morning on ITV1.

Carty was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary, The British Woman on Death Row. It first aired on Channel 4 in the UK on 28 November 2011. In 2012, she appeared on a segment of Werner Herzog's series On Death Row, broadcast on Discovery Channel's Investigation Discovery.[28] And in November 2013, Carty's story was profiled on Investigation Discovery's documentary series Deadly Women, in an episode titled "Untamed Evil."

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Offender Information - Linda Carty". Tdcj.state.tx.us. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "Linda Carty v. The State of Texas". www.cca.courts.state.tx.us.
  3. ↑ . Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/news/article/Desire-for-baby-seen-as-a-motive-2037794.php. Retrieved 2011-12-31. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alex Hannaford (2004-08-02). "Linda Carty: 'I'm not afraid of dying. I'm just angry'". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  5. ↑ http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Linda-Carty-US-Supreme-Court-Will-Not-Hold-Review-Into-Case-Of-British-Grandmother-On-Death-Row/Article/201005115624558
  6. ↑ "British grandmother on death row in US case to be reviewed after witnesses 'threatened'". The Daily Telegraph (London). 2015-02-26.
  7. 1 2 3 Whittell, Giles (2010-02-27). "Death-row inmate Linda Carty launches last-chance appeal to US Supreme Court - Times Online". timesonline.co.uk (London). Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  8. ↑ . St. Kitts Nevis Vibes. 2012-04-11 http://www.sknvibes.com/news/newsdetails.cfm/56251. Retrieved 2012-04-11. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. 1 2 3 "David Rose on the inept handling of British citizen Linda Carty's murder trail | Magazine | The Observer". London: Observer.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  10. ↑ http://digitaljournal.com/article/316375
  11. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/28/linda-carty-innocent-death-row
  12. ↑ "Prison inmate details". Texas Tribune. 2011-12-14. Retrieved 2011-12-14.
  13. 1 2 3 "Fifth Circuit appeal, Appendix A, Page 10" (PDF). US Court of Appeal. 2009-10-15. Retrieved 2011-12-14.
  14. ↑ . Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/2001_3305695/three-men-sought-in-kidnap-killing-suspect-says-sh.html. Retrieved 2011-12-31. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ↑ . Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/default/article/Prosecution-paints-Carty-as-schemer-2063067.php. Retrieved 2011-12-31. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ↑ "Linda Carty - Women on Death Row Linda Carty". Crime.about.com. 2001-05-16. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  17. ↑ . Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Woman-given-death-sentence-in-kidnap-case-2057778.php. Retrieved 2011-12-31. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. 1 2 "UK Amicus Curiae Brief" (PDF). Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  19. 1 2 Paddy McGuffin. "Facing imminent death". Morningstaronline.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  20. ↑ Mat Williams. "Death-row grandmother Linda Carty in last-ditch plea - The Scotsman". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  21. ↑ Lee, Renée C. "Supreme Court rejects plea from British woman on death row." Houston Chronicle. May 3, 2010. Retrieved on May 31, 2010.
  22. ↑ Leonard, Tom (2009-09-18). "Death Row Briton Linda Carty faces execution in US after losing appeal". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  23. 1 2 "UK | Plinth spot for death row Briton". BBC News. 2009-09-10. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  24. ↑ Baron, Alexander (2011-12-06). "Op-Ed: Linda Carty's other lawyer sets the record straight". Digital Journal. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
  25. ↑ "The British Woman on Death Row". Channel 4 Television. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  26. ↑ Melissa Gray CNN (2009-09-10). "Death row grandmother in Trafalgar Square plea - CNN.com". Edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  27. ↑ Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Turner Publishing Company, 2004. 100. ISBN 1-56311-964-1, ISBN 978-1-56311-964-4.
  28. ↑ "On Death Row". Discovery. Discovery Channel. Retrieved March 16, 2012.

External links

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