Jan. 7
TEXAS----impending female execution
Texas woman set to die loses at US Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review the case of a Texas woman who
faces execution later this month for the fatal stabbing and bludgeoning of a
retired college professor.
The high court, without comment, refused to review the case of Kimberly
McCarthy, 51, who is set to die Jan. 29 for the July 1997 killing of Dorothy
Booth during a robbery at the 71-year-old woman's home in Lancaster, about 15
miles south of Dallas.
Evidence showed McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who lived across an
alley from Booth, called her neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar. McCarthy then
went to Booth's home, where she stabbed the older woman 5 times with a butcher
knife, beat her with a large candle holder and cut off her finger to take
Booth's diamond wedding ring. Prosecutors showed McCarthy drove Booth's
Mercedes to Dallas, pawned the ring for $200 and then went to a crack house to
buy some cocaine. Evidence also showed she used Booth's credit cards at a
liquor store and was carrying the victim's driver's license.
Booth's DNA was found on a 10-inch butcher knife recovered from McCarthy's
home.
C. Wayne Huff, McCarthy's attorney, said the Supreme Court's decision was not
unexpected and he would file a clemency request with Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
"We're working on seeing if there are any other avenues we can take," he said.
McCarthy was tried twice for Booth's slaying, most recently in 2002. Her 1st
conviction in 1998 was thrown out 3 years later by the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals, which ruled police violated her constitutional rights by using a
statement she made to them after asking for a lawyer.
In her most recent appeal, McCarthy contended her trial lawyers were deficient
for not introducing into evidence at her punishment trial a statement she made
to police acknowledging she was at the crime scene but blaming the killing on 2
men with her.
Her appeal also argued trial attorneys improperly allowed Booth's daughter to
be present in the courtroom as the trial unfolded. The daughter became
distraught when crime scene photos were described in court, and she had to be
removed from the courtroom. McCarthy's trial lawyers then asked for a mistrial
but the request was denied by the trial judge.
Prosecutors presented DNA and fingerprint evidence that tied McCarthy to
similar slayings in 1988 of 2 other women, one 81 and the other 85. One of the
victims was beaten with a metal meat tenderizer and stabbed. The other was
beaten with both sides of a claw hammer and stabbed. McCarthy was indicted but
not tried for those slayings, both in December 1988. She has denied any
involvement in the killings.
3 of the 492 people executed since Texas resumed carrying out capital
punishment in 1982 have been women.
McCarthy is 1 of 10 women on death row in Texas but the only one with an
execution date. At least 8 men have executions scheduled in the coming months.
2 other death row inmates also lost at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. The
high court also refused to review the cases of Carroll Joe Parr, 35, and Jamie
Bruce McCoskey, 48.
Parr was sentenced to death for a January 2003 robbery and slaying during a
drug deal in Waco. McCoskey faces execution for the November 1991 abduction and
slaying of a 21-year-old Houston man whose pregnant girlfriend was abducted and
raped. Neither Parr nor McCoskey has an execution date.
(source: Associated Press)
*******************************
Executions under Rick Perry, 2001-present-----253
Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982-present----492
Perry #--------scheduled execution date-----name---------Tx. #
254-------------January 29----------------Kimberly McCarthy---493
255-------------February 20---------------Britt Ripkowski-----494
256-------------February 21---------------Carl Blue-----------495
257-------------February 27---------------Larry Swearingen----496
258-------------March 21------------------Michael Gonzalez----497
259-------------April 9-------------------Rickey Lewis---------498
260-------------April 10-------------------Ribogerto Avila, Jr.---499
261-------------April 16------------------Ronnie Threadgill------500
262-------------April 24------------------Elroy Chester----------501
263-------------July 31-------------------Douglas Feldman--------502
(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)
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