June 26
TEXAS---- 500th execution
Texas executes 500th person since state resumed carrying out death penalty in
1982
Texas marked a solemn moment in criminal justice Wednesday evening, executing
its 500th inmate since it resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982.
Kimberly McCarthy, who was put to death for the murder of her 71-year-old
neighbor, was also the 1st woman executed in the U.S. in nearly 3 years.
McCarthy, 52, was executed for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of
retired college psychology professor Dorothy Booth. Booth had agreed to give
McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife and
candelabra at her home in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas.
Authorities say McCarthy cut off Booth's finger to remove her wedding ring.
It was among 3 slayings linked to McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who
became addicted to crack cocaine.
She was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. CDT, 20 minutes after Texas prison
officials began administering a single lethal dose of pentobarbital.
In her final statement, McCarthy did not mention her status as the 500th inmate
to be executed or acknowledge Booth or her family.
"This is not a loss. This is a win. You know where I'm going. I'm going home to
be with Jesus. Keep the faith. I love you all," she said, while looking toward
her witnesses - her attorney, her spiritual adviser and her ex-husband, New
Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels.
As the drug started to take effect, McCarthy said, "God is great," before
closing her eyes. She took hard, raspy, loud breaths for several seconds before
becoming quiet. Then, her chest moved up and down for another minute before she
stopped breathing.
Friends and family of Booth told reporters after the execution that they were
not conscious that Texas had carried out its 500th execution since 1982. They
said their only focus was on Booth's brutal murder.
500 is "just a number. It doesn't really mean very much," said Randall
Browning, who was Booth's godson. "'We're just thinking about the justice that
was promised to us by the state of Texas."
Donna Aldred, Booth's daughter, reading a statement to reporters, said that her
mother "was an incredible person who was taken before her time."
With increased debate in recent years over wrongful convictions, some states
have halted the practice entirely. However, 32 states have the death penalty on
the books. Though Texas still carries out executions, lawmakers have provided
more sentencing options for juries and courts have narrowed the cases for which
death can be sought.
In a statement, Maurie Levin, McCarthy???s attorney, said ???500 is 500 too
many. I look forward to the day when we recognize that this pointless and
barbaric practice, imposed almost exclusively on those who are poor and
disproportionately on people of color, has no place in a civilized society."
Texas has carried out nearly 40 % of the more than 1,300 executions in the U.S.
since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The
state's standing stems from its size as the nation's second-most populous state
as well as its tradition of tough justice for killers.
Texas prison officials said that for them, it was just another execution. "We
simply carried out the court's order," said Texas Department of Criminal
Justice spokesman Jason Clark.
With increased debate in recent years over wrongful convictions, some states
have halted the practice entirely. However, 32 states have the death penalty on
the books. Though Texas still carries out executions, lawmakers have provided
more sentencing options for juries and courts have narrowed the cases for which
death can be sought.
In a statement, Maurie Levin, McCarthy's attorney, said "500 is 500 too many. I
look forward to the day when we recognize that this pointless and barbaric
practice, imposed almost exclusively on those who are poor and
disproportionately on people of color, has no place in a civilized society."
Outside the prison, about 40 protesters gathered, carrying signs saying "Death
Penalty: Racist and Anti-Poor," ''Stop All Executions Now" and "Stop Killing to
Stop Killings." As the hour for the execution approached, protesters began
chanting and sang the old Negro spiritual "Wade in the Water."
In recent years, Texas executions have generally drawn fewer than 10
protesters. A handful of counter-demonstrators who support the death penalty
gathered in another area outside the prison Wednesday.
Executions of women are infrequent. McCarthy was the 13th woman put to death in
the U.S. and the 4th in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, since
the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume. In that same
period, more than 1,300 male inmates have been executed nationwide, 496 of them
in Texas. Virginia is a distant 2nd, nearly 400 executions behind.
Levin, had asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the punishment,
arguing black jurors were improperly excluded from McCarthy's trial by Dallas
County prosecutors. McCarthy is black; her victim white. All but one of her 12
jurors were white. The court denied McCarthy's appeals, ruling her claims
should have been raised previously.
Prosecutors said McCarthy stole Booth's Mercedes and drove to Dallas, pawned
the woman's wedding ring she removed from the severed finger for $200 and went
to a crack house to buy cocaine. Evidence also showed she used Booth's credit
cards at a liquor store.
McCarthy blamed the crime on 2 drug dealers, but there was no evidence either
existed.
Her ex-husband, Michaels, testified on her behalf. They had separated before
Booth's slaying.
DNA evidence also tied McCarthy to the December 1988 slayings of 81-year-old
Maggie Harding and 85-year-old Jettie Lucas. Harding was stabbed and beaten
with a meat tenderizer, while Lucas was beaten with both sides of a claw hammer
and stabbed.
McCarthy, who denied any involvement in the attacks, was indicted but not tried
for those slayings.
In January, McCarthy was just hours away from being put to death when a Dallas
judge delayed her execution.
McCarthy was the 8th Texas prisoner executed this year. She was among 10 women
on death row in Texas, but the only one with an execution date. 7 male Texas
prisoners have executions scheduled in the coming months. McCarthy becomes the
500th condemned inmate to be put to death in texas since the state resumed
capital punishment on December 7, 1982. McCarthy becomes the 261st condemned
inmate to be put to death in Texas since Rick Perry became governor in 2001.
McCarthy becomes the 18th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the
USA and the 1338th overall since the nation resumed exectuions on January 17,
1977.
****************************
Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----261
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present----500
Perry #--------scheduled execution date-----name---------Tx. #
262-------------July 16-----------------John Quintanilla Jr.---501
263-------------July 18------------------Vaughn Ross----------502
264-------------July 31-------------------Douglas Feldman-----503
265-------------Sept. 19------------------Robert Garza--------504
266-------------Sept. 26------------------Arturo Diaz--------505
267-------------Oct. 9---------------------Michael Yowell-----506
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
*************************************
A Demographic Breakdown of Texas' 500 Executions
At some point tonight, Texas is scheduled to execute its 500th prisoner since
the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. As a woman, one of ten on the state's
death row, Kimberly McCarthy is an unusual recipient of the punishment. As a
black woman from Dallas County, she's anything but. Using the state's detailed
list of its executions, we compiled the demographics of all 500 prisoners to
see what patterns emerge. Here's what we found.
Executions by time
It took the state a few years to warm up the lethal injector. It wasn't until 8
years after the state reintroduced capital punishment that the 1st convict was
executed, a black man named Charlie Brooks who was convicted of murder. The
pace picked up slowly for a decade, becoming much more common in the mid-1990s.
Executions by race
While McCarthy and Brooks are black, the plurality of inmates put to death are
white. 225 of those put to death were white, compared to 187 black people and
86 Hispanics.
As a function of the state's population, however, black people are vastly
overrepresented. While blacks comprise 37.4 % of those executed, they are only
11.8 % of the state's population.
Executions by age
73 % of those executed by the state fall in the age range of 31 to 50, as you
might expect. Somewhat surprisingly, only one inmate, the 287th executed, was
over the age of 65. (McCarthy is 52.)
Executions by location
Looking at the counties in which each convict committed his or her crime,
something remarkable jumps out. Nearly 23 % of all of those executed came from
Houston's Harris County. The rest of the executions are largely centered around
the state's urban areas: Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, El Paso, Austin.
Which helps explain, to some extent, the racial disparity. More crimes
resulting in capital punishment occurred in urban areas. Texas' cities are home
to a larger segment of the state's African-American population. Houston's
one-quarter black; Dallas is the same.
But it doesn't explain the entire disparity. In 2000, the Texas Defender
Service released a report documenting racial bias in the state's sentencing
process. Before the report was issued, 34 % of those executed were black. After
the report came out, it jumped to 41 %.
see:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/demographic-breakdown-texas-500-executions/66633/
(source: The Atlantic Wire)
**************************************
Ex-Texas warden reflects after 140 executions
Charles Thomas O'Reilly supported capital punishment when he oversaw his 1st
Texas execution. And he still supported it after his 100th.
In 6 years as warden of the Huntsville Unit, the prison that houses Texas'
death chamber, O'Reilly supervised about 140 executions - more than any other
warden in state history.
Now retired, he reflected on his career this week as the nation's busiest death
penalty state as the state executed its 500th inmate since resuming capital
punishment in 1982.
The 62-year-old said he has no regrets about a process he considered to be a
relatively unemotional and small part of his job.
"If you do 140 of them and then decide you can't do them, then I think you've
pushed it a little too far," O'Reilly said during an interview with The
Associated Press in Forney, about 175 miles away from Huntsville. "If you can't
do it, you should have made that decision after 1, or maybe 2."
O'Reilly, who retired in 2010, recalled meeting condemned inmates when they
arrived at Huntsville the afternoon of their executions.
"I'll tell him that we're going to treat him with as much dignity as he'll
allow us to," O'Reilly said. Then at 6 p.m., he would return to the inmate's
holding cell and say 2 words: "It's time."
A 5-man team walked each inmate to the death chamber and tied the prisoner to a
gurney. Other staff members ran IV lines for the execution drugs.
Before the lethal injection began, O'Reilly would ask the inmate for any last
words. He liked to give each inmate about three minutes, though he rarely cut
anyone off.
Once the inmate's final statement was complete, O'Reilly used a hand-held
clicker to signal to the drug room that it was time to start. Minutes later, he
would signal to a doctor to check the inmate's pulse and declare him dead.
Relatives of the condemned inmates and victims typically watched through a
window.
"There's not a lot said," O'Reilly said. "Everybody knows their job, knows how
to do it, when to do it."
He does not remember the name of the first inmate executed during his tenure,
but a few names stand out. They include Frances Newton, the only woman executed
on his watch. Condemned to death for killing her husband and 2 children, she
was executed in 2005, becoming just the 3rd woman put to death since Texas
resumed capital punishment.
O'Reilly said he was more concerned with making sure executions were done
professionally. He recalls the professionalism of the prison chaplain and the
staff he hand-picked to assist with executions.
Speaking in a low Texas drawl, O'Reilly's voice hardens when asked about his
personal views on the death penalty. He said it's the appropriate way to deal
with society's worst criminals, such as someone who rapes and kills a
7-year-old girl.
"As far as I'm concerned, that person probably got a just punishment for the
crime that he committed," O'Reilly said. "Like me or anybody else, we all have
to take responsibility for our own actions. Our actions are our choice. The
consequences for those actions are not our choice."
Although the fight over the death penalty is often heated, O'Reilly said the
process of an execution is quiet and simple.
"It doesn't take long. There's not a lot said," O'Reilly said. "All you're
going to do there is watch a guy go to sleep."
(soruce: News-Press)
********************************************
Texas must halt "shameful" 500th execution
Amnesty International is calling on the US state of Texas to halt its 500th
execution since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States of
America in 1976. In what it describes as a "shameful milestone", Kimberly
McCarthy, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection in Huntsville at
6pm local time barring a stay of her execution.
The 52-year-old African American woman was sentenced to death in 2002 for
murder.
"Capital punishment in Texas has been arbitrary, biased and prone to error,"
said Brian Evans, director of Amnesty International USA's campaign to abolish
the death penalty.
"It is a profound and irreversible injustice. The death penalty is cruel,
inhuman and degrading, and a violation of the right to life as proclaimed in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," he said.
The list of the 499 people put to death in Texas since 1976 includes prisoners
suffering from severe mental illness or intellectual disability, teenage
offenders and defendants who had been provided with woefully inadequate counsel
when on trial for their lives. In several cases, executions went ahead despite
convictions based on flawed or questionable evidence.
The lone star state of Texas has the deadly distinction of topping the US
execution table, having carried out nearly 400 more executions than the
2nd-highest offender, Virginia, with 110 since 1976. Although the number of
executions in Texas is falling year on year, Brian Evans points to worrying
trends.
"Amnesty International recognizes that attitudes may be shifting in Texas, as
jury-issued death sentences in recent years have been at historic lows.
However, among other things, there is reason to be concerned about the
continuing influence of race in capital justice."
7 of the 9 people sentenced to death in Texas in 2012 and 6 of the 7 executions
this year have been African Americans.
While only 12.2 % of the population of Texas is black, African American inmates
make up nearly 40 % of the 283 inmates currently on death row in the state. In
Harris County, African Americans account for more than 70 % of death row
inmates, and less than 20 % of the general population.
In 1997 Duane Buck was sentenced to death after a Harris County jury heard
"expert" evidence that Buck was likely to pose a future danger of violent
behaviour because of the colour of his skin.
"This alarming suggestion illustrates just one aspect of the acute injustice in
the Texas capital punishment system. After more than 30 years and 499
executions, it is time for Texas to break old habits and join the trend towards
abolition," said Brian Evans.
According to Amnesty International's most recent yearly report on the use of
the death penalty worldwide, the overall the worldwide trend is away from the
use of the death penalty. 5 US States have legislated to abolish the death
penalty in the past 6 years - New Jersey (2007), New Mexico (2009), Illinois
(2010), Connecticut (2012), and just last month, Maryland.
(source: Amnesty International)
********************
500 legal lynchings mark 'modern era' of death penalty in Texas
Texas is poised to carry out its 500th execution on June 26 at 6 p.m. at the
Walls Prison Unit in Huntsville, Texas, barring a last-minute stay of execution
for Kimberly McCarthy.
This African-American prisoner has pending appeals in the Dallas trial court
and in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on 2 critical issues: the removal of
all people of color except for 1 from her jury, which follows a documented
history of deliberate racism in Dallas County; and the inadequate legal
representation provided by her previous attorneys, who never challenged this
racism legally.
Activists, attorneys and legal associations, major media, scholars and civil
rights organizations have all condemned the existing system of capital
punishment. Most acknowledge that the flaws are fatal and cannot be fixed.
Every major newspaper in Texas has called for its end.
On June 26, the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement will hold a press
conference before it leaves from its home at the S.H.A.P.E. Center in Houston
for the 70-mile trip to the death house in Huntsville, where a militant
demonstration will be held.
"The death penalty is so racist and so arbitrary that no one, whether actually
innocent or guilty, should ever be executed in Texas or the United States. From
the racism to the prosecutorial misconduct to the execution of the innocent,
the mentally ill, noncitizens and those with diminished mental capacity, the
death penalty is guilty and must be shut down now!" organizer Pat Hartwell told
Workers World. "And on top of that, Texas has spent well over $1 billion on
these 500 killings."
The Dallas Peace Center will also take a bus to Huntsville. Activists plan
demonstrations in Austin at the Capitol as well.
The co-called modern era of the death penalty began in 1976, after the U.S.
Supreme Court, which had stopped executions in 1972, allowed them to resume.
Since then, the country has carried out 1,336 executions, mostly in the South.
Texas has held 37 % of them. And over 400 of Texas' executions are the
responsibility of the former governor, George W. Bush, and the current
governor, Rick Perry.
Texas uses the death penalty more than any other state. Number 2 in executions
is Virginia, with 110, of them only 5 since 2010. Texas has executed more
people than the next 6 states - Virginia, Oklahoma, Florida, Missouri, Alabama
and Georgia - combined.
The death penalty is a vestige of the virulent national oppression honed during
400 years of enslavement of African people. This oppression continued after the
so-called Emancipation Proclamation. Today's death penalty is a continuation,
by legal means, of the illegal lynchings that took place from after the Civil
War and into the 1900s.
Capital punishment is a system consumed by the racism so pervasive in today's
criminal justice system. Prosecutorial misconduct is the order of the day.
District attorneys hide exculpatory evidence from the defense, evidence is
destroyed or just "lost," and jailhouse snitches are given favors to provide
evidence that prosecutors do not have.
Executions take place because crime labs falsify evidence, African-American and
Latino/a jurors are struck from cases because of their race, and incompetent
lawyers fail to represent their clients.
In Dallas County, where McCarthy was convicted, the racist practices of the
district attorney's office were actually codified in its manuals on jury
selection.
The Dallas Morning News described racial discrimination in jury selection as
early as the 1930s, when it published an article reporting that a riot almost
took place when Blacks appeared at the Dallas County Courthouse insisting they
be considered for jury service.
In 1938, the African-American president of Wiley Junior College was thrown head
first down the courthouse steps when he refused to leave after being excused
from jury service. It wasn't until 1949 that an African American was permitted
to serve on a jury trial.
D.A.'s overt racism
Henry Wade took over as district attorney in Dallas in 1951 and is responsible
for creating and fostering the culture of racism still present today. Jack
Hampton, who later became a judge in Dallas, told the Dallas Morning News that
he once allowed a Black woman to serve on a jury in a minor trial he was
prosecuting. When the woman was reluctant to convict the defendant and hung up
the jury, Wade told him, "If you ever put another N***er on a jury, you're
fired." Hampton never put another African American on a jury for the remainder
of his tenure in the DA's office.
Wade served as district attorney for 35 years, from 1951 to 1986. A now
infamous jury training manual produced by his office told prosecutors "to never
take Jews, Negroes, Dagos, Mexicans, or any minority race, no matter how rich
or how well-educated." A later memo said it "was not advisable to select jurors
with multiple gold chains around their necks or those who were 'free
thinkers.'"
This information is in McCarthy's pending appeal as she rightfully claims that
these racist practices affected the outcome of her trial since those who
prosecuted her were trained under Wade.
Racism is prevalent all over Texas. The Houston Chronicle reported in November
of 2011 that the last white person from Harris County sent to death row was in
2004. Since then, 12 of the last 13 men newly condemned to die have been Black,
a Houston Chronicle analysis of prison and prosecution records shows. The
latest Houston death sentence was handed down in October of 2011 to a Latino.
Harris County (Houston) also has a long history of aggressive prosecution of
capital cases. 35 % of Texas' current death row of 283 came from Harris County.
So did 1/2 of the 111 Black prisoners on death row, according to Texas
Department of Criminal Justice data.
"Although Texas is using the death penalty less, the state still uses it
disproportionately on people of color," said Kathryn Kase, executive director
of the Texas Defender Service, which represents death row prisoners in their
appeals. "This is a recurring problem and Texas' failure to fix it demonstrates
how broken its capital punishment system is."
This horrific milestone of 500 executions will likely never be matched by any
other state in the country. Why?
1. The 2nd state in terms of executions is Virginia with just over 100 - but
Virginia has only 9 people on its death row.
2. In the last 6 years, 6 states have abolished the death penalty, making 18
states that now cannot execute. Several others are studying capital punishment
and some are considering repeal. Of the 32 states that have the death penalty
on their books, most do not use it.
3. The pace of executions has demonstrably slowed in the last decade and death
sentences are also down, even in Texas.
4. It is likely that the Supreme Court will outlaw the death penalty once it is
abolished in a majority of states, recognizing the growing national consensus
against its use.
Whether McCarthy is still alive when the death penalty is put into the trashcan
of U.S. history is still unknown, as is the fate of the other six people also
scheduled for execution in Texas.
"What we do know is that the death penalty is on its way out. The Abolition
Movement just hopes it doesn't take any more victims with it before it is
gone," said Hartwell. "Just as we fight the rampant deaths at the hands of the
police and the Border Patrol, in Texas we fight legal lynching."
(source: Workers World)
******************
Texas soon to hit grim milestone: 500th execution
Texas, the nation's most prolific executioner of criminals, is about to put its
500th inmate to death since the mid-1970s.
Barring a last-minute reprieve, Kimberly McCarthy, a 52-year-old former Black
Panther wife, will be given a lethal injection of pentobarbital at around 6:10
p.m. Wednesday for the murder of a 70-year-old Dallas County woman during a
1997 robbery.
And while McCarthy's crime was a notorious one ??? she used a butcher knife and
candelabra to beat and fatally stab a retired college professor - her death is
likely to bring even more attention than her crime. The grim milestone of 500
executions here has reignited debate on both sides of the death penalty issue.
Texas is by far the most fatal of the nation's 34 death penalty states.
Virginia places a distant second with 110 executions since the death penalty
was federally reinstated in 1976, followed by Oklahoma with 105 and Florida
with 77, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based
group that advocates against the death penalty.
Executions do little to deter future criminals, said Kristin Houle, executive
director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. There have been
12 death row exonerations in Texas since 1976, she said. At least 5 executed
offenders were "strongly suspected" of being innocent, she said.
"The system is rife with doubt and failures," Houle said. "This is a punishment
that can't be reversed."
Dudley Sharp, a Houston-based death penalty and victims advocate, said the
death penalty absolutely deters some segment of the criminal population and,
more important, brings fair justice to the families of victims. "Executed
murders don't harm or murder again," he said.
Most Texans agree with Sharp. A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll
conducted last year showed nearly 2/3 of respondents remain overwhelmingly in
support of the death penalty.
"Here in Texas, we tell people that if you commit really bad crimes, we're
going to look to putting you to death," said Jim Willett, a former warden and
current director of the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville. "And we're going to
follow through with it."
Executions sometimes draw throngs of protesters or advocates outside the
red-brick death chamber in Huntsville, known as "The Walls Unit" for the
soaring 20-foot-high walls that engulf the compound.
Despite Hollywood lore, offenders are given whatever the prison kitchen cooks
up as a last meal, said John Hurt, a spokesman with the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice, which oversees executions. Many respectfully decline dinner.
"Most of them will tell you they don't have much of an appetite," he said.
Texas has been executing its murderers since the 1920s, most famously with an
electric chair nicknamed "Old Sparky" by inmates, according to the Texas Prison
Museum. In all, 361 men died in the electric chair until the Supreme Court
declared the death penalty "cruel and unusual punishment" in 1972.
It was reinstated 4 years later. Texas has executed 499 offenders since, using
lethal injection.
McCarthy, who is linked to 2 other slayings, already has had her execution date
pushed back twice this year. Evidence showed McCarthy, a former nursing home
therapist, used a butcher knife to sever her victim's finger to steal her
wedding ring.
McCarthy's attorney, Maurie Levin, is trying to halt her execution again,
contending black jurors improperly were excluded from her trial by Dallas
County prosecutors.
Levin said there has been a "pervasive influence of race in administration of
the death penalty and the inadequacy of counsel - a long-standing issue here."
(source: USA Today)
**********************************
Kimberly McCarthy Set To Become 500th Person Executed In Texas Since 1982
Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, is set to mark a solemn moment
in criminal justice Wednesday with the execution of convicted killer Kimberly
McCarthy.
If McCarthy is put to death in Huntsville as planned, she would become the
500th person executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out the death
penalty in 1982. The 52-year-old also would be the first woman executed in the
U.S. since 2010.
McCarthy's attorney, Maurie Levin, said she has exhausted all efforts to block
the execution, after denials by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
"If there was something to appeal, I would," said Levin.
Texas has carried out nearly 40 % of the more than 1,300 executions in U.S.
since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The
state's standing stems from its size as the nation's 2nd most populous state as
well as its tradition of tough justice for killers.
With increased debate in recent years over wrongful convictions, some states
have halted the practice entirely. However, 32 states have the death penalty on
the books. Still, it's clear the debate over capital punishment has touched
Texas, with lawmakers providing more sentencing options for juries and courts
narrowing the cases for which death can be sought.
McCarthy faces execution for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of
retired college psychology professor Dorothy Booth. Booth had agreed to give
McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife at her
home in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. Authorities say McCarthy cut
off Booth's finger to remove her wedding ring.
Police also had linked 2 other slayings to McCarthy, a former nursing home
therapist who became addicted to crack cocaine.
In her appeals, McCarthy contended prosecutors improperly excluded black jurors
and that her lawyers failed to challenge the moves at trial or in early
appeals. McCarthy is black, and Booth was white. All but one of the 12 jurors
at McCarthy's trial were white.
In January, McCarthy had been moved to a small holding cell a few steps from
the Texas death chamber when a Dallas judge moved her execution to April. That
timing then was reset for June when Dallas County District Attorney Craig
Watkins said he wanted to await the outcome of capital punishment-related bills
before lawmakers in Austin.
On Tuesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to reconsider its
denial a day earlier of McCarthy's appeal, saying her claims should have been
raised previously.
Levin, a University of Texas law professor, said because the court's ruling
focused on a procedural and not a substantive issue, the case cannot be
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"The shameful errors that plague Ms. McCarthy's case - race bias, ineffective
counsel and courts unwilling to exercise meaningful oversight of the system -
reflect problems that are central to the administration of the death penalty as
a whole. For this to be the emblem of Texas' 500th execution is something all
Texans should be ashamed of," Levin said.
McCarthy declined to speak with reporters as her execution date neared.
Anti-death penalty groups planned to protest outside the Walls Unit in
Huntsville, where McCarthy is set to receive a lethal injection Wednesday
evening.
"The whole world is looking at Texas," said Gloria Rubac, with the Texas Death
Penalty Abolition Movement in Houston.
McCarthy would be the 13th woman nationwide and the 4th in Texas put to death
since 1976. In the same period, more than 1,300 men have been executed
nationwide, 496 of them in Texas. Virginia is a distant 2nd, nearly 400
executions behind.
Federal statistics show that over the past 3 decades women account for about 10
% of convicted murderers. According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, there were
63 women on death row in the U.S. as of Jan. 1, representing 2 % of the
nation's 3,125 condemned prisoners.
Prosecutors showed that McCarthy stole Booth's Mercedes and drove to Dallas,
pawned the wedding ring she had removed from the woman's severed finger for
$200 and then went to a crack house to buy cocaine. Evidence also showed she
used Booth's credit cards at a liquor store.
Booth's DNA was found on a 10-inch butcher knife recovered from McCarthy's
home.
McCarthy blamed the crime on 2 drug dealers, but there was no evidence either
existed.
Blood DNA evidence also tied McCarthy to the December 1988 slayings of
81-year-old Maggie Harding and 85-year-old Jettie Lucas. Harding was stabbed
and beaten with a meat tenderizer, while Lucas was beaten with both sides of a
claw hammer and stabbed.
McCarthy, who denied any involvement in the attacks, was indicted but not tried
for those slayings.
McCarthy is a former wife of Aaron Michaels, founder of the New Black Panther
Party, and he testified on her behalf. They had separated before Booth's
slaying.
(source: Huffington Post)
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