Linda Carty

Linda Anita Carty
Born	October 5, 1958 (1958-10-05) (age 53) St. Kitts
Charge(s)	Murder
Conviction(s)	Murder
Penalty	Death by lethal injection
Status	All Appeals Denied. No set execution date.
Occupation	Laborer.[1] Former Primary School Teacher. Former Undercover U.S. D.E.A. Drug Informant
Spouse	Jose Corona

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, allegedly in order to steal her four-day-old son.^[2][3] Carty claims she was framed by drug dealers^[4] in response to her work as an informant and has appealed against her conviction. Her appeals have been unsuccessful and the appeal procedure has been exhausted.^[5] Barring the granting of clemency, she stands to become the first black British woman to be executed in more than a century.^[6]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Drug informant 3 The crime 4 Investigation 5 Trial 6 Conviction and appeals 7 Defense claims 8 Additional information 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Early life

Originally from St. Kitts, Carty holds British citizenship as the island was still 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.^[7]

Drug informant

In 1992, Carty was convicted of auto theft and impersonation of an FBI agent. She was sentenced to 10 years probation,^[8] on the condition she would work as a drug informant.^[9] While working as an informant, she provided information leading to two arrests.^[9] Her services came to an end when she was arrested on drug charges.^[9]

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^[10].

Trial

The following evidence was presented during the trial:

• In early May 2001, Carty and her husband separated. Carty then informed him that she was pregnant with his child.^[2]
• On the day before the murder, 15 May 2001, Carty told her neighbor, Florence Meyers that she was pregnant and that the baby was going to be born the next day. Meyers testified that Carty did not appear to be pregnant.^[2][11]
• Carty told her husband on 15 May that she was going to have a baby boy the next day. When he met her at the police station on 16 May after she had been arrested, he asked her if the baby had been born and she told him "not yet." ^[2]
• On 15 May, Carty told Sherry Bancroft, an employee at Public Storage, that she had indeed had the baby and that he was at home with his father.^[2]
• The victim's husband testified that while the intruders were in his home, one of them answered his cell phone and said, "We are inside here. Do you want it?" Then he yelled that "she" was outside and that they had to go. The intruders left, taking the baby with them.^[2]
• Carty's cell phone records were introduced, and showed eleven calls logged between 12:50 a.m. and 2:50 a.m. on 16 May 2001, between Carty's phone and the cell phone number that led police to Gerald Anderson. Seven of those calls were placed between 1:09 a.m. and 1:14 a.m.^[2]
• Sarah Hernandez testified that she met Carty when they were both serving time in jail. Carty asked Hernandez to write a letter for her because she did not want the letter to be in her own handwriting. Carty wrote out what she wanted the letter to say, and Hernandez copied it. Hernandez said the letter was supposed to be from someone named Oscar. The letter said Carty was being set up by "Chris and Zeb," who borrowed Carty's car and put the baby in it. The letter stated they had a grudge against Carty.^[2]
• Carty's mother testified that her daughter did not mention to her that she was pregnant when they talked on 13 May or on the following days, and Carty did not appear to be pregnant around that time.^[2]

Conviction and appeals

Carty was convicted of murder on February 19, 2002. On February 21, she was sentenced to death by lethal injection^[2][12][13].

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 as a friend of the Court.^[6][14][15] However, on May 3, 2010 the Court refused to hear the appeal.^[16] The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has the option to recommend clemency to the Governor of Texas. However, such recommendations are rare.^[17]

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.^[14] 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][18] 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.^[7] 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.^[6][7] In addition, they assert that Guerinot met with Carty for only one fifteen-minute interview. This has been rejected by Guerinot's co-counsel^[19]. Carty also claims that on one occasion she was interviewed without counsel being present^[4]

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.^[18][20] However, there has been little media coverage in the U.S.

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.^[21]

Carty was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary, called The British Woman on Death Row. It first aired on Channel 4 in the UK on the 28th of November 2011.

See also

• Capital punishment
• Capital punishment in Texas

References

External links

• Linda Carty interview in the Guardian newspaper
• The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas - Linda Carty v. The State of Texas. (Contains a description of the events of May 16, 2001.)
• The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - Linda Anita Carty v. Nathaniel Quarterman, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division
• Amicus Curiae brief by the UK government in support of Carty
• Linda Carty Case Presentation of the case on the Fair Trials International website. Retrieved 2011-02-09
• Website of Agency Involved in Carty's Appeal
• Death row Briton's last hope for mercy - BBC video report and interview with Linda Carty, September 23, 2010.

Persondata
Name	Carty, Linda
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1958-10-05
Place of birth	St. Kitts
Date of death
Place of death