Linda Carty

Last updated
Linda Carty
Born
Linda Anita Carty

(1958-10-05) 5 October 1958 (age 65)
Occupation(s)Laborer, [1] former primary school teacher, [2] former drug informant
Criminal statusIncarcerated at Patrick O'Daniel Unit in Gatesville, Texas
SpouseJose Corona
Conviction(s) Capital murder
Criminal penalty Death (February 21, 2002)

Linda Anita Carty (born 5 October 1958) is a Kittitian-American [lower-alpha 1] former schoolteacher who is on death row in Texas. In February 2002, she was sentenced to death for the abduction and murder in 2001 of 20-year-old Joana Rodriguez in order to steal Rodriguez's newborn son. [3] [4] Carty claimed she was framed by her co-defendants who were drug dealers [5] because she had previously been an informant.

Contents

Carty has appealed her conviction, [6] [7] [8] with her most recent petition to the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari being denied by the Supreme Court on November 13, 2018. [9] [10] [11]

Early life and education

Born in St. Kitts to Anguillan parents, [12] 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 also a United States citizen. [13] She was previously a primary school teacher. [2] Carty studied pharmacology at the University of Houston. [14] [15]

Drug informant

In 1992, Carty was convicted of auto theft and impersonation of an FBI agent. She was sentenced to 10 years probation, [16] on the condition she would work as a drug informant. [17] While working as an informant, she provided information leading to two arrests. [17] Her services ended when she was arrested on drug charges. [17]

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 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) helped land seizures of thousands of dollars worth of narcotics and led to the imprisonment of scores of dealers. [5]

The crime

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice:

On May 16, 2001, Carty and three co-defendants invaded a home and kidnapped a 20-year-old female and her newborn son. The victim subsequently died of suffocation, but the baby was found unharmed. [1]

Investigation

Investigators initially suspected Carty after discovering that she had told people she was going to have a baby despite not appearing pregnant. [18] 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, although the witness thought Carty did not appear to be 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 might 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. [3]

Trial

The following evidence was presented during the trial:

Conviction and appeals

Patrick O'Daniel Unit (then Mountain View), where Carty is held Entrance to TDCJ Mountain View Unit.jpg
Patrick O'Daniel Unit (then Mountain View), where Carty is held

Carty was convicted of murder on February 19, 2002. On February 21, she was sentenced to death by lethal injection. [3] [20]

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 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. [21] [22] [23] [24] However, on May 3, 2010, the Court refused to review the case, denying certiorari. [25] The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has the option to recommend clemency to the Governor of Texas. However, such recommendations are rare. [26]

In 2018, she petitioned the Supreme Court again, arguing that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals "refused to consider the cumulative prejudice" of constitutional errors in her case, including ineffective assistance of counsel and the State intentionally withholding "numerous items" of exculpatory evidence; however, the Court denied certiorari. [9] [27] [10] The British government filed an amicus brief in her support. [10] [28]

Defense claims

Carty, her lawyers, and her supporters contend that she has been unjustly sentenced to death for a murder she did not commit. Reprieve claims that her defense attorney did not present mitigating evidence. [23] They assert that no scientific evidence exists that establishes that she was at the scene of the crime, [5] although her fingerprints were found in the car containing the victim's body. [3] Carty has claimed that she was framed by three men for her work as an informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration. [5] [29] Carty stated that "it was too difficult just to kill me, so they hatched this plot." [5] "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. [5] Baker Botts, the law firm handling Carty's appeal, have argued that her trial attorney, Jerry Guerinot, handled her defense in an incompetent manner. [13] Michael Goldberg of Baker Botts accuses Guerinot, who never won a death penalty case over his entire career, of failing to call any witnesses who might have persuaded the jury that she did not deserve execution. [21] [13] In addition, they assert that Guerinot met with Carty for only a single 15 minute interview. Guerinot's co-counsel has disputed this. [30] Carty also claims that she was interviewed without counsel being present on one occasion. [5]

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. In an interview for a documentary broadcast by the UK's Channel 4, The British Woman on Death Row (November 28, 2011), the United Kingdom's Consul General in Houston at the time, Paul Lynch, stated that this breach: [31]

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 contends in its amicus curiae brief [22] 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 to obtain redress for this breach. [28]

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. [29] [32]

Carty is presently being held on death row at the Mountain View Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. [33]

In 2012, she appeared on a segment of Werner Herzog's series On Death Row , broadcast on the Discovery Channel program Investigation Discovery . [34] In November 2013, Carty's story was profiled on Investigation Discovery's documentary series Deadly Women , in an episode titled "Untamed Evil."

On June 19, 2016, Sky Network aired a one-hour program about her case on CBS Reality. The program is called The British Woman on Death Row. On March 22, 2022, ITV broadcast British Grandma on Death Row with Susanna Reid, in which Carty continued to profess her innocence.

Notes

  1. Saint Kitts and Nevis was still a British colony in 1958, giving her British citizenship.

See also

Related Research Articles

An amicus curiae is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an amicus brief will be considered is typically under the court's discretion. The phrase is legal Latin and the origin of the term has been dated to 1605–1615. The scope of amici curiae is generally found in the cases where broad public interests are involved and concerns regarding civil rights are in question.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Bobbie Jo Stinnett</span> 2004 murder in Skidmore, Missouri, U.S.

Bobbie Jo Stinnett was a 23-year-old pregnant American woman who was murdered in Skidmore, Missouri, in December 2004. The perpetrator, Lisa Marie Montgomery, then aged 36 years old, strangled Stinnett to death and cut her unborn child from her womb. Montgomery was arrested in Kansas the next day and charged with kidnapping resulting in death – a federal crime. Stinnett's baby, who had survived the crude caesarean section, was safely recovered by authorities and returned to the father.

Frances Elaine Newton was executed by lethal injection in the state of Texas for the April 7, 1987 murder of her husband, Adrian, age 23, her son, Alton, age 7, and her daughter, Farrah, 21 months.

Randall Dale Adams was an American man wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death after the 1976 shooting of Dallas police officer Robert W. Wood. His conviction was overturned in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Texas</span>

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18.

Henry Watkins Skinner was an American death row inmate in Texas. In 1995, he was convicted of bludgeoning to death his live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and stabbing to death her two adult sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler. On March 24, 2010, twenty minutes before his scheduled execution, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to consider the question of whether Skinner could request testing of DNA his attorney chose not to have tested at his original trial in 1994. A third execution date for November 9, 2011, was also ultimately stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on November 7, 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick O'Daniel Unit</span> Womens prison in Gatesville, Texas, U.S.

Patrick L. O'Daniel Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison housing female offenders in Gatesville, Texas. The unit, with about 97 acres (39 ha) of land, is located 4 miles (6.4 km) north of central Gatesville on Farm to Market Road 215. The prison is located in a 45-minute driving distance from Waco. In addition to its other functions, O'Daniel Unit houses the state's female death row inmates.

Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510 (2003), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court spelled out standards for "effectiveness" in the constitutional right to legal counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Previously the court had determined that the Sixth Amendment included the right to "effective assistance" of legal counsel, but it did not specify what constitutes "effective", thus leaving the standards for effectiveness vague. In Wiggins v. Smith, the court set forth the American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases Guideline 11.8.6.(1989), as a specific guideline by which to measure effectiveness and competence of legal counsel.

Barefoot v. Estelle, 463 U.S. 880 (1983), is a United States Supreme Court case. The Court ruled on the admissibility of clinical opinions given by two psychiatrists hired by the prosecution in answer to hypothetical questions regarding the defendant's future dangerousness and the likelihood that he would present a continuing threat to society in this Texas death penalty case. The American Psychiatric Association submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of the defendant's position that such testimony should be inadmissible and urging curtailment of psychiatric testimony regarding future dangerousness and a prohibition of such testimony based on hypothetical data.

The Center on the Administration of Criminal Law is a think-tank dedicated to the promotion of good government and prosecution practices in criminal matters. Its work has been the subject of a feature story in the Associated Press.

United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460 (2010), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled that 18 U.S.C. § 48, a federal statute criminalizing the commercial production, sale, or possession of depictions of cruelty to animals, was an unconstitutional abridgment of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Amicus is a legal non-profit organisation based in London, United Kingdom which helps secure equal access to justice for those facing the death penalty in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña</span> Child murders and rapes in 1993

The rapes and murders of Jennifer Lee Ertman and Elizabeth Christine Peña, two teenage girls from Houston, Texas, aged 14 and 16, respectively, occurred on June 24, 1993. The murder of the two girls made headlines in Texas newspapers due to the nature of the crime and the new law resulting from the murder that allows families of the victims to view the execution of the murderers. The case was also notable in that the state of Texas rejected attempts by the International Court of Justice to halt several perpetrators' executions.

Duane Edward Buck is an African-American man formerly on death row following his conviction for the shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend Debra Gardner and her friend Kenneth Butler. He also wounded his sister, who was also at Gardner's home.

<i>On Death Row</i> 2012 American television mini-series

On Death Row is a television mini-series written and directed by Werner Herzog about capital punishment in the United States. The series grew out of the same project which produced Herzog's documentary film Into the Abyss. The series first aired in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2012, on Channel 4.

Bei Bei Shuai is a Chinese immigrant to the United States who became the subject of international public attention from 2011 to 2013, when the authorities of the state of Indiana charged her with murder and attempted feticide after her suicide attempt allegedly resulted in the death of the fetus with which she was pregnant. In Britain, The Guardian described Shuai's case, as well as those of other women who lose their pregnancies in cases of maternal drug addiction or a suicide attempt, as part of a "creeping criminalisation of pregnancy across America".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Angela Samota</span> 1984 murder in Texas, US

The murder of Angela Samota occurred on October 13, 1984, when she was attacked while in her apartment, raped and killed. The case remained unsolved until DNA evidence surfaced in the 2000s, following which charges were brought against a convicted rapist, Donald Andrew Bess Jr., who was subsequently tried and received a death sentence. He died of natural causes while awaiting execution in October 2022.

Melissa Elizabeth Lucio is the first woman of Latino descent to be sentenced to death in the U.S. state of Texas. She was convicted of capital murder after the death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, who was found to have scattered bruising in various stages of healing, as well as injuries to her head and contusions of the kidneys, lungs and spinal cord. Prosecutors said that Mariah's injuries were the result of physical abuse, while Lucio's attorneys say that her death was caused by a fall down the stairs two days prior.

Christina Allison Swarns is an American lawyer and the executive director of the Innocence Project since September 8, 2020. As of 2012, Swarns had seven convicted murderers taken off of death row, one of whom was exonerated, three had their convictions overturned, and three had their sentences vacated. She received national media attention after her U.S. Supreme Court victory in Buck v. Davis, a case that overturned a death sentence on the grounds of unfair racial bias.

References

  1. 1 2 "Offender Information - Linda Carty". Tdcj.state.tx.us. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
  2. 1 2 "Death row woman's 'bizarre baby plan'". BBC News . September 11, 2009. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  3. 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. Archived from the original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
  4. Lezon, Dale (May 18, 2001). "Desire for baby seen as a motive". The Houston Chronicle . Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alex Hannaford (2004-08-02). "Linda Carty: 'I'm not afraid of dying. I'm just angry'". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  6. "Death Row Gran Faces 'Imminent Execution'". Sky News . 2010-05-03. Archived from the original on 2010-05-06.
  7. "British grandmother on death row in US case to be reviewed after witnesses 'threatened'". The Daily Telegraph . February 26, 2015.
  8. "Press Release: British death row grandmother granted new hearing", Reprieve, 2015-02-25.
  9. 1 2 "Search - Supreme Court of the United States". www.supremecourt.gov. Docket no. 18-50. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  10. 1 2 3 Blakinger, Keri (November 18, 2018). "Supreme Court turns down appeal from British woman on Texas death row". The Houston Chronicle . Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  11. Graczyk, Michael (February 7, 2018). "Court rejects appeal from British woman on Texas death row". ABC News . Associated Press . Retrieved February 10, 2018.
  12. Conway, Stanford (April 11, 2012). "Death Row Granny may soon be executed". St. Kitts Nevis Vibes. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  13. 1 2 3 "David Rose on the inept handling of British citizen Linda Carty's murder trail". The Observer Magazine . London. December 2, 2007. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  14. Baron, Alexander (December 20, 2011). "Op-Ed: 12 myths about Linda Carty debunked". Digital Journal.
  15. Hannaford, Alex (February 28, 2010). "Death row: the last hope". The Guardian .
  16. "Prison inmate details". Texas Tribune. 2011-12-14. Archived from the original on 2011-08-21. Retrieved 2011-12-14.
  17. 1 2 3 "Fifth Circuit appeal, Appendix A, Page 10" (PDF). US Court of Appeal. 2009-10-15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-12-01. Retrieved 2011-12-14.
  18. Glenn, Mike (May 19, 2001). "Three men sought in kidnap, killing". The Houston Chronicle . Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  19. Christian, Carol (February 12, 2002). "Prosecution paints Carty as schemer". The Houston Chronicle . Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  20. Lezon, Dale (February 22, 2002). "Woman given death sentence in kidnap case". The Houston Chronicle . Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  21. 1 2 Whittell, Giles (February 27, 2010). "Death-row inmate Linda Carty launches last-chance appeal to US Supreme Court - Times Online". Times Online . Archived from the original on June 1, 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  22. 1 2 "UK Amicus Curiae Brief" (PDF). Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  23. 1 2 McGuffin, Paddy. "Facing imminent death". Morning Star. Archived from the original on 2010-03-14. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
  24. Williams, Mat (26 February 2010). "Death-row grandmother Linda Carty in last-ditch plea". The Scotsman . Retrieved 28 April 2010.
  25. Lee, Renée C. (May 3, 2010). "Supreme Court rejects plea from British woman on death row". The Houston Chronicle . Retrieved May 31, 2010.
  26. Leonard, Tom (September 18, 2009). "Death Row Briton Linda Carty faces execution in US after losing appeal". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  27. Linda Carty v. The State of Texas(July 2018), Text .
  28. 1 2 https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-50/58868/20180808145239714_Amicus%20Curiae%20Brief%20Linda%20Anita%20Carty%20v.%20Texas%2018-50.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  29. 1 2 "UK | Plinth spot for death row Briton". BBC News . September 10, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  30. Baron, Alexander (December 6, 2011). "Op-Ed: Linda Carty's other lawyer sets the record straight". Digital Journal . Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  31. "The British Woman on Death Row". London, UK: Channel 4. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013.
  32. Gray, Melissa (September 10, 2009). "Death row grandmother in Trafalgar Square plea". CNN . Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  33. "Texas Department of Criminal Justice Offender Search". offender.tdcj.texas.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-12-27. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  34. "On Death Row". Discovery. Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved March 16, 2012.