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

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Times

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.


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

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http://soulofsyracuse.syr.edu.nyud.net:8090/symposium/panel1/carty.jpg
Writer joins bid to save Death Row Briton
Published: 27/02/2010

CRIME writer Martina Cole has added her voice to a campaign to save a British grandmother on Death Row in Texas.

The move came as Linda Carty was launching a last-ditch appeal with the US Supreme Court in a bid to save her life.

Carty 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 the 51-year-old will be submitted to the Supreme Court alongside the appeal from her legal team and an amicus brief from the British Government.

If it fails, Carty could be executed within months.

Read more: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1624946?UserKey=#ixzz0giw25VB5

[Judi Lynn]

1. Curious to see that within a couple of minutes late at night, this thread got bombed with an unrec.

I'm not sure if it's the fact the subject is a black woman, or someone doesn't want ANYONE escaping a death sentence, or if it's just the same person who unrecs. all the posts I make late at night.

I'd like to unrec. the unrec'r for any of the reasons.

One day this country will recivilize itself and we will permanently live without the death penalty, and whether the accused is Caucasian, African American, Latin American, or from the Caribbean. You'd better brace yourself, unrec'r, it will happen.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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

[DFW]

4. I don't post much but EVERY post I put up gets an immediate unrec. Some people live for nothing else

Don't worry about it. It's a standard thing on DU. I'd do away with it, but it ain't my show.

As for Texas, my state has long been one of the most bloodthirsty of all in our country, and our
system of "justice (not)" has practically never met a death penalty case it didn't like, especially
when the person to be executed was not white. Guilt or innocence is often a secondary consideration.
To our detriment and national shame, the Supreme Court has five members who feel very much the same way.

[Egnever]

5. I didnt unrec however

this country will never give up the death penalty. Violence and destruction is a part of our national identity. Believing otherwise is only wishful thinking.

We glorify violence in nearly everything we do it will take more than a wish for compassion to change that and it wont be changing in your or my lifetimes.

[defendandprotect]

11. We once did overturn the death penalty -- let's concentrate on doing it again ...

And if you want to end violence, work to overturn patriarchy and its organized

patriarchal religion -

Patriarchy and violence are mirror images of one another --

[some guy]

3. more

" Two trial witnesses testified that Ms Rodriguez had been abducted by four men, whom prosecutors claimed Carty had hired to kill the younger woman for her newborn baby. Despite the lack of any forensic science evidence linking Carty to the crime, and a defence case based on one 15-minute meeting with the accused, the jury found her guilty and condemned her to death.

Jerry Guerinot, Carty’s courtappointed attorney, has more clients on death row than any other lawyer in the US. He has denied negligence in Carty’s case but stands accused by Michael Goldberg, of the Houston firm now representing her free of charge, of failing to call any witnesses who might have exonerated her. These include a former Houston Drug Enforcement Agency officer for whom Carty had worked as an informant, who has said that he would have testified that she was no “cold-blooded murderer”.

Mr Guerinot obtained money from the state to travel to St Kitts but never went, according to Mr Goldberg. He also failed to challenge the prosecution’s claim that Carty intended to cut Ms Rodriguez’s baby from her womb, even though the baby had been born four days before the murder. "

Seems she had a great attorney. :sarcasm:

[hmorehead]

9. Like Kenny Bruce said, you can get all the justice you can afford. Reccomend.

[readmoreoften]

6. Please check out the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. In Texas, its modern lynching.

The laws are in-fucking-sane. If you're anywhere near a crime scene--or if you were hanging out or in the car with criminals--everyone is equally guilty. In Robert Woods' case, a borderline retarded guy takes his roommate to the convenience store and the roommate shoots the cashier. Woods was so unaware of what was going on he was literally gassing up the car and asked the guy to buy him a soda. Death row. I met his family. They aren't even against the death penalty. They just don't understand why someone slow who's manipulated into driving a murderer to a murder scene ends up on death row.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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

[defendandprotect]

10. We need to get rid of this blood thirsty right wing SC . . . !!!

"Beware of those with a strong need to punish" --

[buckrogers1965]

12. Life long conservative that opposes the death penalty.

Not for any squishy feel good reasons, but based on the following logic.

If I defend myself and somehow manage to overcome my assailant and have them helpless on the ground and I shoot them in the back of the head, I am guilty of cold blooded first degree murder at that point. This is true for any citizen in the United States. No individual citizen has the right to execute a helpless prisoner.

It is a long standing principle of the constitution that government is only granted power by it's citizens.

How can the government execute helpless prisoners when none of its citizens have that right?

Where does the authority come from to perform such an action when none of the citizens that make up the government have that right?

[MadMaddie]

13. She is in Texas

which translates to she probably will not get a stay. They love the death penalty and putting people to death.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Actors support death row Briton

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".

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

[Taverner]

15. Texas "Justice" is unquestionably corrupt, so good luck

She should get a stay and another trial, but they LOVE killing people in Texas. Especially innocent folks.