Kimberly McCarthy Execution

Kimberly McCarthy was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of her elderly neighbor. Kimberly McCarthy would be executed by lethal injection on June 26, 2013 she was the 500th prisoner to be executed by the State of Texas by this method.

Kimberly McCarthy was born on May 11, 1961 in Greenville Texas. She was married for a short time and had one son. Kimberly McCarthy would work as a occupational therapist for a time until a crack addiction took over her life. McCarthy would spend time in prison for an assortment of charges including prostitution and theft

On July 21, 1997 Kimberly McCarthy would phone her elderly neighbor to ask to borrow some sugar. When McCarthy arrived at the home she would stab the victim multiple times, beat her with a candle holder and cut off a finger to steal a diamond ring. McCarthy would steal the victims car and a variety of objects from the home. McCarthy would be arrested the next day and charged with capital murder.

Kimberly McCarthy lawyers would put up a defense that their client was being set up and was not guilty of the brutal murder. However the jury felt differently and convicted her and sentenced her to death.

Kimberly McCarthy would be executed by lethal injection on June 26, 2013

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Kimberly McCarthy on Wednesday evening became the 500th prisoner executed in Texas since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated in the state, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

McCarthy was pronounced deadat 7:37 p.m. ET at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, said department spokesman John Hurt.

The 52-year-old former occupational therapist was convicted in 1997 of murdering her 71-year-old neighbor, Dorothy Booth, a retired college professor.

Booth was found beaten and stabbed to death, and one of her fingers was severed, indicating a ring was forcibly removed, the Department of Criminal Justice said.

Evidence later showed McCarthy had pawned the stolen diamond ring the day of the crime. When she was arrested, McCarthy was found with Booth’s credit cards and a large knife stained with her neighbor’s blood, the department said.

In her last statement, McCarthy thanked her supporters, including her ex-husband, attorney and spiritual adviser.

“Thank you everybody. This is not a loss, this is a win. You know where I am going. I am going home to be with Jesus. Keep the faith. I love y’all,” McCarthy said, according to Jason Clark, another department spokesman.

Outside the prison, nicknamed the “Walls Unit,” a small crowd of demonstrators gathered Wednesday afternoon to protest the execution. They held signs that read, “Don’t kill for me” and “End executions in Texas.”

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday denied McCarthy’s appeal of her sentence and declined on Tuesday to reconsider it, saying her claims should have been raised previously, CNN affiliate KPRC reported.

Texas has led the nation in the number of executions since 1976, but the number of states carrying out capital punishment continues to drop.

Last year, Texas executed more people than it sentenced to death for the eighth straight year.

Four states – Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Arizona – accounted for three quarters of all U.S. executions in 2012.

https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/26/justice/texas-500th-execution/index.html

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The most-prolific death penalty state in the US executed its 500th inmate on Wednesday as protesters gathered outside the penitentiary walls to rally against a grim landmark in America’s capital punishment history.

About 70 people waited outside the prison in central Huntsville, Texas, where Kimberly McCarthy was put to death by lethal injection. After the scheduled execution time of 6pm local time (1am Thursday BST), some chanted “murderers!” as a dozen guards stood behind yellow tape and blocked the road leading to the execution chamber.

Kimberly McCarthy, 52, was declared dead at 6.37pm. In her final statement, she said: “This is not a loss. This is a win. You know where I’m going. I’m going home to Jesus. I love you all … God is great,” Associated Press reported.

Prison officials administered a single dose of pentobarbital, a barbiturate.

Typically about 10 people gather in Huntsville to protest against each execution. Peter Johnson, 68, stood holding a sign bearing the slogan “Execute justice not people”. He said he had travelled from Dallas, three hours away, and this was the fourth or fifth time he had come to express his disgust in front of the red-brick walls of the Huntsville unit.

“Not only is it a tragedy for this particular person, it’s a disgrace for our nation and our state,” he said. “I feel the way the death penalty is dispensed in the state of Texas is tied to the colour of the killer and the colour of the victim.”

Critics of the death penalty have long argued that it disproportionately affects poor people and ethnic minorities. Black people make up 12% of the state’s population, but nearly 40% of the 281 inmates on death row.

McCarthy’s lawyer, Maurie Levin, had filed a last-ditch appeal alleging that her client’s state-appointed legal representation at trial was inadequate and that the composition of the Dallas County jury was unfair because the prosecution used peremptory strikes to remove prospective non-white jurors, with the result that all but one of the 13-person jury was white.

But on Tuesday the Texas court of criminal appeals refused to hear the appeal for the second time in two days. McCarthy’s execution had already been stayed twice this year, once only hours before she was due to die. 

Since it resumed capital punishment in 1982, Texas has executed more prisoners than the next six states combined. Virginia, the second-most prolific state, has put to death 110 people. With its 26 million people Texas is the second-largest state in the US by population.

Some outside the prison held posters declaring “Wanted – Serial Killer, Gov. Rick Perry.” Like his predecessor, George W. Bush, the Texas governor is a firm believer in capital punishment. In 2011 he said he lost no sleep over the possibility that his state had executed an innocent person.

His spokesman told the Guardian last year that Perry had introduced reforms allowing for greater use of DNA testing, imposing minimum qualifications for court-appointed defence lawyers and making it easier for prosecutors to seek life without parole for offenders. Perry has presided over 261 executions, more than any other governor in modern US history, but the rate of executions has declined from a high of 40 in 2000, Bush’s last year.

In 2012, Texas executed 15 prisoners. Kimberly McCarthy is the eighth inmate given a lethal injection in Texas this year. Another seven executions are scheduled between now and January, including two next month.

Kimberly McCarthy was a former care-home therapist and a cocaine addict. According to court records, she entered the home of her white neighbour, Dorothy Booth, on the pretext of wanting to borrow some sugar. McCarthy then stabbed the retired 71-year-old five times, beat her, cut off a finger to steal her diamond ring and fled with her purse. She was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2002, five years after the murder in a Dallas suburb.

Kimberly McCarthy is the first woman executed in the US since 2010 and only the 13th since capital punishment was reinstated in the US in 1976. The US has executed 1,338 people since then, the Death Penalty Information Center says.

Polls suggest most Americans still support capital punishment. McCarthy’s was the second US execution this week. Brian Davis was put to death for the rape and murder of his girlfriend’s mother in Oklahoma on Tuesday after Governor Mary Fallin rejected a recommendation from the state’s parole board that the sentence be reduced to life without parole, reports said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/27/texas-executes-500th-inmate-mccarthy

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