Supreme Court may decide today whether it will take her appeal.Twenty-year-old Joana Rodriguez had just given birth days earlier when four men busted into her Houston apartment on May 16, 2001, pistol-whipped her husband and abducted her and her newborn.
Rodriguez's body was later found in the trunk of a car with a plastic bag over her head. Her arms and legs were bound with duct tape and her mouth and nose also had been covered with tape. An autopsy revealed she suffocated.
Authorities said Linda Anita Carty (pictured), a neighbor, plotted the kidnapping because she wanted Rodriguez's baby in a desperate attempt to keep her common-law husband.
Carty, who was found guilty of capital murder in February 2002, is now fighting for her life as one of 10 women on Texas death row. The 51-year-old grandmother has a petition before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to announce today whether it will hear her case seeking a new trial.
Her chances are slim. The high court denies most death penalty requests, according to legal experts. But Carty, who claims she had ineffective counsel and maintains her innocence, remains optimistic.
“I think there's a possibility they will take it,” said Carty during an interview last week at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Mountain View Unit, just west of Waco.
If her request is denied, Texas officials will set an execution date and Carty, a British citizen, will become the only woman to have a slot on the state's execution calendar. It could be years before she's actually put to death. Read more>>>
Source: Houston Chronicle, May 3, 2010
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