Linda Carty (left), a British citizen, has spent eight years on death row in Texas. Her supporters claim that she is innocent – and that one final appeal is all that can save her from lethal injection in the county with the highest execution rate in the US.A British passport holder from the Caribbean island of St Kitts, Carty is now 51 and has spent almost eight years on death row in Texas, accused of abducting and killing a woman in order to steal her baby and pass it off as her own.
In the early morning of 16 May 2001, four men broke into a flat in the apartment complex where Carty lived, demanding drugs and money from the people inside. Joana Rodriguez, who lived there with her husband and infant son, was later found suffocated in the boot of a car that belonged to Carty's daughter, her arms and legs bound with duct tape, and a plastic bag placed over her head. Her baby was found alive in another car later the same day. Three of the men – Chris Robinson, Gerald Anderson, Carliss Williams (the fourth has never been identified) – told police that Carty had planned the entire thing and that she told them if they broke into the apartment and kidnapped Rodriguez and her son, they would find 200lb of marijuana and cash inside.
In return for testifying against Carty, the three men were each promised lesser sentences.
Carty blames her conviction on her trial lawyer, whom she says was woefully inept. She also believes that she was framed by people she met in her work as an undercover informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, a job that involved befriending criminals and passing on information to handlers such as Mathis. She says Robinson, Anderson and Williams must have been hired to carry out the task.
Last autumn, an appeal court rejected Carty's claim that her trial in 2002 was unfair. This means that the supreme court, and a rare last-minute reprieve from the board of paroles and pardons, is all that stands between her and the ultimate punishment: execution by lethal injection. This could come as early as this summer.
The British government seems to be rallying behind Carty: last year it filed an amicus brief (a legal document registering the concerns of a third party over the court's decision) at the 5th circuit court of appeals. On Friday, the human rights group Reprieve announced at a press conference that the government is filing another brief – this time to the US supreme court. In addition, the UK solicitor general, Vera Baird, plans to fly to Texas to increase British involvement in the case. But time is fast running out.
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Source: The Guardian, Feb. 28, 2010
What can I do ?
After signing this petition and sending it to your friends, you can write a letter of support to Linda at:
Linda Carty, # 999406
Mountainview Unit
2305 Ransom Rd
Gatesville
Texas 76528
USA.
Letters must include a return address.
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