Actors support death row Briton

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Press Association

Actors support death row Briton
(UKPA) – 4 hours ago

Film stars Colin Firth and Julie Christie have backed a campaign to save the life of a British grandmother on death row in the US. The actors joined a number of public figures and celebrities including authors Philip Pullman, Zadie Smith and Martina Cole to write a letter to the Sunday Times calling for public support for Linda Carty.

It comes two days after Carty, 51, lodged a last-ditch appeal with the US Supreme Court. She was convicted in 2002 over the abduction and murder of a 25-year-old woman after a trial which campaigners say was "catastrophically flawed".

A video plea on behalf of Carty will be submitted to the Supreme Court alongside the appeal from her legal team and a document from the British Government outlining its concerns over her sentence. If it fails, Carty could be executed within months. Backing Reprieve's Save Linda Carty campaign, the letter said: "Now is the time to get very worried about Linda - and to support the government's Supreme Court appeal on her behalf.

"Linda would not be on death row if she had been able to afford a decent defence lawyer. The government has told the Supreme Court that Texas's failure to notify it of her arrest prevented Linda from receiving desperately needed legal assistant from the British consulate - that would probably have saved her life."

The letter warned the Supreme Court reopened only a "tiny number" of cases, prompting fears there was a "real possibility that Linda will die without her case ever having been properly heard".


Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jVIqbK7Sf4I4rPUkrZaO-KcnOyzg

[marmar]

1. A society does not become better by doing what it purports to hold in contempt.....

..... as Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

It's state-sanctioned murder, no matter how it's been cloaked.

[AngryAmish]

2. Well if Colin Firth says so....

who is colin firth? An actor, I assume.


Poor woman should not be put to death but imagine is plumbers got famous, would we consult with them on state matters? jeez

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Colin Firth is able to read a headline

I clicked on a post titled 'Actors Support Death Row Briton' and on the page it said Actors Support Death Row Briton. If after reading both things, you still posted, and honestly had to 'assume' he is an actor, is that a reading problem or a short term memory problem?
Just amazing really.

[AzNick]

11. Mocking the fact that Firth is a C-list actor in the US, I presume

[Hissyspit]

39. Colin Firth has been nominated for an Academy Award.

He was a lead in the hugely popular Abba movie.

I'm not sure where C list comes in.

[Judi Lynn]

43. He's had a substantial career in his own country, and has done well here, too.

His Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Firth

Apparently we are lucky to have a major film critic posting here! We REALLY don't deserve it.

[AzNick]

56. "I know his face, not his name" = C-List

I admire Stephen Tobolowsky, yet nobody ever remember his name.

People remember him as Ned Ryerson from Groundhog Day.

Sad to say, but he's a C-List actor.

Can't go shopping at Walmart, sad. Even sadder is people probably recognize him and go "Oh yeah... you're... a dude from TV, right?"

Although I believe Colin Firth could probably shop at Walmart. The few people who would recognize him would think they know him from high school.

[liberation]

37. Well, they don't call sarcasm the lowest form of wit for nothing...

[Hissyspit]

41. Any human being can call attention to the plight of another human being.

Thus the words "humane," "humanity." If you do not think so then the onus is on you to convince me (and others) otherwise, I would think.

Colin Firth has been nominated for an Academy Award this year, was the romantic lead on the very successful "Bridget Jones" movies and was a lead on the very popular " Mamma Mia" ABBA movie. Making the argument that we should ignore someone's opinion by implying they don't know what they are talking about when you start out admitting that you yourself are uninformed (whether you actually are or not) is not very effective logic, I think you will find.

[Coventina]

46. Well, he wasn't in any movies with big booms or car crashes

so that that's probably why some have no idea who he is.

:eyes:

[RaleighNCDUer]

47. This is not a matter of state - it is a matter of justice.

Should only the law enforcement community be concerned with justice?

If this woman is not guilty, as the preponderance of the evidence seems to indicate, then the obvious corollary is that the guilty person is still out there walking around.

I don't know why people are always putting down actors getting involved in worldly causes. I ask, rhetorically, why do actors tend to be liberal?

Because, unlike plumbers or doctors or lawyers or politicians, one of the job requirements for an actor is to put on another person's skin and live in it, for weeks or months at a time. Seeing every aspect of a situation, to better grasp their character's part in it, is de-riguer for an actor. Understanding motivations and interpersonal interactions of persons who are usually far different from themselves is their daily business. Not even psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors dig so deeply into so many different personalities because they, by their own profession precepts, must keep a clinical distance from their subjects.

If you want to discuss engineering, talk to an engineer. If you want to discuss plumbing, talk to a plumber. If you want to discuss the foibles of humans in interaction with other humans, talk to an actor.

ON EDIT: It seems I was confusing this case with another - it was not the evidence that was particularly questioned, but problems with the inept defense. A decent defense might have provided counters to the evidence against her, or might not. The rest of my post stands.

[LanternWaste]

54. All things being equal...

All things being equal, I imagine his perceptive is neither less nor more important than yours or I. I also imagine that one who gives an opinion for or against a thing may be just as valid whether it be done in an oft seen public venue, or on a message board.

That, in effect, his opinion on this matter is little different in form or function than the myriad of opinions we read and post here daily; and that we are all, as you so cleverly stated, "famous plumbers..."

[Botany]

3. I am against the death penalty because it costs too much and takes too long ..

.... but a quick google search shows that Ms. Carty is no saint.

Summary of incident
On 05/16/2001 Carty and three co-defendants 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.

[Garbo 2004]

8. Wiki entry apparently incorrect: the men invaded the home, Carty was not present.

The state did not claim she invaded the home. The three men who were charged in the home invasion received lesser charges and sentences after they claimed Carty, a former DEA informant, was the "mastermind."

A 2007 Guardian article provides more info and context that suggests perhaps it wasn't an open and shut case and her attorney was not particularly aggressive in mounting a defense, securing witnesses, etc.: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2218841,00.html

Recent Times article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7043309.ece

[msanthrope]

12. Actually, after reading the articles you gave, I'm more convinced of her guilt, and

of the fact she got a good defense. On edit, I'll go so far as to say that she got a great defense, given how badly she damaged her own case. The simplest read of the actual court papers--the findings of fact, would have greatly informed these articles.

It was a loser case, and I'm still not certain why this self-claimed American citizen needed the British Consulate.

[Garbo 2004]

28. 5th Circuit appeals court didn't agree that she had a great or good defense.

But it said that regardless, it did not render her conviction "fundamentally unfair or unreliable."

[msanthrope]

53. You are incorrect in your assessment, IMHO.

The 5th never considered if she had a 'great or good defense', so stating that they 'didn't agree' isn't an accurate assessment.

It's conflating a legal standard with an opinion.

[Proletariatprincess]

4. can't trust US courts to deliver justice.....

and that goes double for Texas. The death peanalty should be abolished in the USA for that reason alone. As for Texas....every conviction should have judicial review or be overturned out of hand because of that state's poor record.

[skyounkin]

9. I'm afriad but I have to agree

[proteus_lives]

5. I wonder how many actors support the victim.

[frogmarch]

7. She did it.

She had a history of pretending to be pg, and the abduction of the baby had Linda Carty written all over it.

http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/opinions/HTMLopinionInfo.asp?OpinionID=12448

I feel sorry for Joana Rodriguez, the murdered mother of the baby, but not for Linda Carty.

[msanthrope]

10. looks like it---the forensic evidence from the cars, the faked pregnancies

and the boyfriend, then accomplice testimony seem credible.

I have no doubt the jury found sufficient reason to do BRD.

However, it's pretty apparent she didn't have the greatest lawyer. Certain issues which should have been preserved for appeal were not. Further, it seems that cross-examination was less than stellar.

But, on balance, there's not much to indicate that even if her counsel had been stellar, she would have been acquitted.

[scottsoperson]

13. dna

dna has freed a lot of people here in the usa.

[msanthrope]

14. And? If she's got DNA that overrides finding her fingerprints in the car

where the baby was left, fingerprints in the car where the murder victim was left, the baby clothes from her storage unit--then her lawyers need to file the claim.

[scottsoperson]

15. racial profiling does happen in missouri

http://ago.mo.gov/racialprofiling/2008/racialprofiling2008.htm

[msanthrope]

16. Yeah? This is Texas. And what does racial profiling have to do with

this case?

Seriously---

[scottsoperson]

17. freedom and democracy

freedom and democracy

[msanthrope]

18. I'd try arguing facts, myself. n/t

[scottsoperson]

19. what did i say

that was not factual?

[Quantess]

35. Ever heard of "thread hijacking"?

That's what you just did.

[LanternWaste]

55. What is the precise and relevant correlation? nt

What is the precise and relevant correlation?

[frogmarch]

21. Know of any DNA evidence

that would refute any of this?

http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/opinions/HTMLopinionInfo.asp?OpinionID=12448

Excerpt:

Based upon the above discussion, the following non-accomplice evidence, taken as a whole, is sufficient to "tend to connect" the appellant to the commission of the victim's kidnapping and murder:

1. The appellant lived two apartment numbers down from the victim in the same complex.


2. One of the accomplices answered a cell phone during the commission of the offense and stated that "she" was outside and asked her if she wanted "it."


3. The appellant's cell phone records reflect seven calls made between the appellant's phone and a phone that may have been used by accomplice Anderson between 12:50 a.m. and 1:14 a.m on May 16, 2001. Cabrera testified that the intruders broke in around 1 a.m., and police testified they were dispatched to the scene around 1:15 a.m.


4. The appellant was obsessed with having a baby and lied about being pregnant to many people, including her daughter and husband. In the days before the offense, the appellant told many people that she was pregnant and that her baby was due in the next couple of days. The appellant told many people that she expected to deliver a baby boy on the day before the kidnapping. On the evening of May 15, 2001, about 5 hours before the kidnapping, the appellant told the manager at her storage unit that she had already delivered the baby and that he was at home with his father.


5. The appellant retrieved a baby blanket and two sets of baby clothes from her storage unit on the evening of May 15, 2001. She was driving the Pontiac Sunfire rental car in which the victim's body was found the next evening.


6. Hours before the kidnapping, the appellant was sitting outside of the apartment complex in the Pontiac Sunfire and there was an infant's car seat in the back.


7. The appellant arrived at her mother's house in a taxi around 8 or 9:00 a.m. on May 16, and borrowed her daughter's black Cavalier.


8. The appellant told police that she might have loaned cars to people involved in the instant offense.


9. On the evening of May 16, the appellant led police to the house where the Cavalier and the Sunfire were located. The baby was found in the Cavalier and the victim was found in the trunk of the Sunfire. The appellant had driven both of these cars in the days and hours before and after the kidnapping.


10. The appellant was seen in possession of a gun similar in appearance to the gun found at the house on Van Zandt. Ammunition fitting such gun was found in the diaper bag which was found in the Cavalier with the baby.


11. The appellant asked a fellow inmate to write a letter which represented that it had been written by someone else and stated that the appellant had been set up.


Thus, even without the testimony of the witnesses who were potentially accomplices, the evidence "tends to connect" the appellant to the commission of the crime.

[msanthrope]

24. More testimony---

from the trial of a co-defendant.


SNIP--

At Van Zandt Street, Carty demanded that the men tape up Rodriguez.


Robinson and Gerald Anderson refused, but Williams complied. He then closed Rodriguez in the trunk of Carty's car. At this point, the men were angry because they had obtained little drugs or money in the lick; they believed that Carty had set them up for a kidnaping that they did not want to commit. Hearing the argument, Zebediah Combs, who lived at 6402 Van Zandt Street and did not participate in the lick, came outside and demanded that everybody be quiet.


Carty said to him, "I got my baby. I got my baby." After seeing Rodriguez in the trunk of her car, Combs told Carty to move the car away from the house. Carty refused, and Combs went back inside. Meanwhile, Robinson, Williams, and Gerald Anderson went to make change for the money they had stolen.


When they returned around 3:30 a.m. to 4:00 a.m., Carty was standing partially in the trunk of her car and partially on the ground. Rodriguez was face down in the trunk, and Carty had placed a plastic bag over her head. Robinson ran up and pushed Carty away, but he could see that Rodriguez had stopped breathing. Robinson ripped the bag while attempting to remove it from Rodriguez's head. When Robinson confronted Carty about why she had killed Rodriguez, Carty replied that it was her baby, her husband's baby.


During the police investigation of the burglary and kidnaping, a tenant in Carty's apartment complex, Florence Meyers, told police about an encounter with Carty the day before that was suspicious. On the evening of May 15, Meyers saw Carty sitting in the Pontiac Sunfire in the parking lot of the apartment complex. Carty told Meyers that she was pregnant and that the baby was going to be born the next day. There was an infant's car seat in the back seat of Carty's car. To Meyers, Carty did not appear to be pregnant. Meyers's statement caused the police to suspect Carty had committed the kidnaping.


After taking Meyers's statement, the police called Carty at around 9 a.m. on May 16 and pretended to respond to a complaint she had filed a few days earlier. She agreed to meet them. At the time of the call, Carty was in a car with Robinson and the baby. Robinson drove Carty to meet the police, and she agreed to go with them to a police station. When Carty did not return from the meeting, Robinson went back to Van Zandt Street with the baby.


Upon arriving at the police station, Carty told the police that she was a confidential Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA") informant, and asked to speak with her DEA agent, Charlie Mathis. A few days before the kidnaping and murder, Carty had called Mathis and told him about being pregnant. The police then asked Mathis to help them find out what Carty knew about Rodriguez and the missing baby. Mathis told Carty she was in a lot of trouble and advised her to help the police.


Read more: http://vlex.com/vid/68567240#ixzz0gt7hrfs4


Interestingly, people wonder why the defense did not call DEAgent Mathis to the stand during the penalty phase.....the answer should be evident.

[frogmarch]

25. Thanks for your post and the link.

Compelling!

When they returned around 3:30 a.m. to 4:00 a.m., Carty was standing partially in the trunk of her car and partially on the ground. Rodriguez was face down in the trunk, and Carty had placed a plastic bag over her head. Robinson ran up and pushed Carty away, but he could see that Rodriguez had stopped breathing. Robinson ripped the bag while attempting to remove it from Rodriguez's head. When Robinson confronted Carty about why she had killed Rodriguez, Carty replied that it was her baby, her husband's baby.

Wow.

[Garbo 2004]

27. Defense didn't talk to Mathis at all & Mathis gave affadavit supporting appeal.

Which seems strange and contradictory if she was such a problem CI as indicated in court docs. & although defense attny said they had spoken with Mathis, Mathis says otherwise.

In October 2005, Mathis swore an affidavit for Carty's appeal lawyers from Baker Botts, saying: 'I never spoke prior to or during the trial to Linda's attorneys, Jerry Guerinot or Wendi Akins about what I was going to testify about. I did have a brief conversation with Ms Akins during the trial, but we talked about a completely different case. I found it odd that Linda's attorneys never even attempted to contact me, let alone talk with me about my testimony at Linda's trial.'

If they had done so, the affidavit makes clear, Mathis would have been of considerable help. Confirming that she passed a background check and worked for years as an active CI, it states Carty was 'effective and helpful', and although she was currently off the books, 'she still called me semi-regularly with tips on various cases. Had one of these tips warranted it, I would not have hesitated to put Linda back on the books as a CI. That was generally how CIs were employed, and it was not uncommon for a CI to come on and off the books as circumstances warranted.'

Over the years, Mathis's affidavit adds, he got to know Carty 'very well'. She might, it says, be 'capable of exaggeration', but 'I do not believe her to be a compulsive liar. I would have been willing to testify that Linda should not have gotten the death penalty and also would have been willing to testify that I do not believe her to be a future danger. I would have testified that she is not a violent person, let alone a cold-blooded murderer... I would not have employed someone like Linda as a CI if I had felt they were capable of intentionally murdering someone. Had Linda's counsel approached me, I would have been willing to testify on Linda's behalf.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2218841,00.html

[msanthrope]

49. Um, Mathis testified against her in court--he was a pros, witness who testified about her lying

about being pregnant....because Canty, in the weeks before the murder told him she was pregnant.

Seriously, why would the defense call him in the penalty phase? How would it have been helpful to call the DEA agent she lied to? You realize that had the defense called him, the prosecution could have, and would have, opened up a whole new can of worms regarding just how Canty became a DEA informant. DEA informants don't become such out of the goodness of their hearts--they become such because the DEA has something on them.

Tell me, how would opening that mess--rightfully excluded in the guilt phase--have possibly helped Canty?

Further, of course no DEA agent is gonna admit that they 'knew' they were using a murderer as an informant. A first-year law student would take about 10 seconds to show a jury just how self-serving the statement "I would not have employed someone like Linda as a CI if I had felt they were capable of intentionally murdering someone," is. It's to Mathis' benefit to claim he didn't know she was capable of murder--after all, what the heck else is he gonna say?

[Garbo 2004]

26. Court doesn't note any forensics supporting state's assertion that she murdered victim.

She indeed could have been involved in the crime, but the assertion that she killed the victim evidently is not based on forensics but on accomplice testimony. That her prints were in cars she was known to have used isn't surprising. What about prints or other forensic evidence on the victim? At least one of the defendants claimed he saw Carty with the plastic bag over the victim's head... suffocating the victim. Were there no prints or other forensic evidence indicating Carty had physical contact with the victim? Presumably if there were such forensic evidence, the court would have specifically included it as evidence independent of witness testimony.

Other evidence cited independent of witnesses includes a cell phone that "may have been used" by Anderson. That seems surprisingly squishy. A footnote states that testimony "suggested" that the phone was used or at least associated with Anderson. They also evidently couldn't actually independently tie the gun found to Carty but only that it was "similar in appearance." Same with the bullets.

Based on the appeal court docs it appears the state's main contention that led to the death penalty, that Carty murdered the victim, is based on accomplice testimony, not on forensics.

[Romulox]

48. Um, fingerprints and phone logs ARE "forensic evidence"...

You may not find them compelling, but it hurts your argument to make a claim in your post title that is clearly contradicted by the body of your post!

[msanthrope]

50. And baby items from her storage unit, presented through a non-accomplice witness.

Why would the owner of the storage facility lie about Canty getting baby items from storage that day, and why would she lie about Canty telling her she was pregnant? And the baby items just mysteriously show up on the kidnapped infant?

No wonder Canty's appeals spend time trying to get the baby items thrown....

[Romulox]

51. I can't say whether she's guilty or innocent. But when her supporters bend the truth,

I think it tends to be quite counter-productive.

[msanthrope]

52. You bring up an interesting point--is it her supoorters deliberately

bending the truth, or just failing to educate themselves by looking at the court record?

I guess because I work with criminals, I simply don't trust anything that comes out of their mouths regarding their claims of innocence, and fairness of trial. I look at the court record.

Unsurprisingly, what Canty claims, and what reality is, are two different things.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Death-row inmate Linda Carty launches last-chance appeal to US Supreme Court

February 27, 2010
Death-row inmate Linda Carty launches last-chance appeal to US Supreme Court

A British grandmother who once sang for the Prince of Wales faces death by lethal injection within months unless a final appeal launched yesterday can persuade the US Supreme Court that she deserves a second trial. Linda Carty, a rape victim who says she was framed for murder by career criminals, has been on death row in central Texas since 2002. Her hopes of clemency depend on the Supreme Court accepting her case, and with it 80 bound briefing documents submitted by British campaigners and government lawyers. If it does not, she will almost certainly become the first black British woman to be executed in more than a century.

Carty was born in St Kitts, whose Prime Minister has described her as “a star who could have entered politics”. She now spends 23 hours a day in a cell in Gatesville, Texas, condemned to death after a trial described yesterday as “catastrophically flawed”, for a murder of which she has always proclaimed her innocence.

A “friend of the court” briefing by the British Government and delivered to the Supreme Court on Thursday, contends that Carty deserves a retrial because Texan authorities and her court-appointed lawyer failed to inform British officials of her arrest, as they were required to do by consular treaty. In another briefing submitted yesterday by a British documentary film-maker, Carty’s new lawyer — from a firm with close ties to both the former presidents Bush — is quoted as saying he will not be able to sleep at night “knowing that she could be killed without having had the chance of a fair trial”.

Appeals on her behalf to the Texas Supreme Court and a federal appeals court have already been turned down, even though both were supported by British claims similar to those submitted in Washington this week. The Supreme Court agrees to consider just one in 30 death penalty cases brought before it, campaigners say.

Carty was born on the eastern Caribbean island in 1959, and lived there as a British Overseas Territories Citizen until she was 23, teaching children with special needs and on one occasion singing a solo for the Prince of Wales.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7043309.ece

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=7808642

[msanthrope]

22. I don't see her winning, even if SCOTUS takes it.

I don't see SCOTUS revisiting Medellin so soon.

The Texas State court found, as a matter of fact, that Carty had been advised, twice, of her VCCR rights. She denied, twice, being a foreign national.

So I think Texas is correct in asserting that she waived whatever rights she might have had.

[midnight]

23. K&R for a second chance...

[proteus_lives]

30. Second chance for who?

The murderer?

[EFerrari]

29. K&R

[Ex Lurker]

31. I'm against the death penalty, but

I couldn't care less what a bunch of actors think about this issue, or any other issue.

[scottsoperson]

32. prolifers killed

600,000 people over a lie in iraq.

[Ex Lurker]

33. que? n/t

[scottsoperson]

34. freedom and democracy.

democratic underground.

[Confusious]

36. Does your parrot know how to type any other words?

Maybe I can teach mine.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[scottsoperson]

40. click here

to read the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

[chrisa]

57. Huh?

This is too much of a blanket statement to respond to. Its reasoning and facts are just wrong.

Your thinking is way too black and white here.

[Hissyspit]

42. Did you know about this case before they (and thus this thread) brought your attention to

it? Are you now assuming the woman's guilt based on the fact that actors brought your attention to it? Would the case be more or less questionably prosecuted if dog groomers brought your attention to it? Anti-death penalty activists? A less-than favorite Congressperson? A journalist in India? Not really following your logic.
(Note: I am not arguing for the woman's guilt or innocence.)

[Ex Lurker]

44. you make a point

I was somewhat familiar with the case before, although it wasn't foremost in my mind. So this story did make me more aware. I have to be honest, though. The fact that a celebrity has latched on to a particular cause makes me less favorably inclined to that cause. Call it prejudice if you like; it is what it is. The ones that have two brain cells to rub together seem few and far between, so whenever one comes out in favor of on an issue I support, I groan inwardly.

Like I said, I'm against the DP. But if I was on the fence, this wouldn't sway me to their side.

[CBGLuthier]

45. who cares what you think?

"bunch of actors"

"bunch of people on internet"

Are actors sub humans to you?

[Ex Lurker]

58. the difference being

I post here for the same reason you and everyone else does, because we can. But I don't expect people to care what I think. Celebrities do think their opinion actually matters.