BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A Kittitian of Anguillan parentage, who is on Death Row in the Mountain View Unit women’s prison outside Gatesville in Texas, said that the British people may be the last hope in saving her life.
Fifty-year-old Linda Carty, holder of a UK dependent territory passport, was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of Joana Rodriguez (25) who was seized, along with her four-day-old son, by three men on May 16, 2001.
In a seven-minute recorded appeal which was broadcast on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth in London on Thursday, September 10, Carty said, “Time is now running out and I appeal to every one of you and to the British government to please help me…I’m sorry if I sound like a desperate woman. I am desperate because the British people may be my last hope. If they ask for my life to be spared, maybe Texas will listen.”
According to BBC News, Carty’s supporters erected a cardboard cut-out of her on the plinth, which is being used for temporary live statues, while campaigner Brian Capaloff (46) from Falkirk, Stirlingshire held up pieces of cardboard featuring extracts from her plea.
The event was organised by Reprieve, a British human rights organisation, whose spokesperson argued that the case against Carty was full of inconsistencies and her court-appointed lawyer was incompetent.
Reprieve described Carty as the most at-risk British national they are following. A ruling is expected soon and the group is trying to raise money to fight her case or to lobby for clemency should her appeal fail, which is lodged with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. However, if unsuccessful, she would be put to death by lethal injection.
The media house noted that when asked if she thought Prime Minister Gordon Brown could assert more pressure, Carty said: “He has to. You cannot sit passively by and, because you have a good relationship with the US, say ‘I don’t want to rock the boat’. You are talking about somebody’s life here. He has to get up and say ‘I am not going to allow you to kill this lady’.”
Director of Reprieve Clive Stafford-Smith said, “Linda Carty’s speech to Trafalgar Square shows that she is a terrified woman, and with good reason. Texas plans to kill her by lethal injection, which is a painful and lonely death. The British government must do everything in its power to prevent Linda’s death.”
Also in her broadcast, Carty said it was “everybody’s worst nightmare” to be executed for a crime she claimed she did not commit. “I am living that nightmare,” she added. “I have begged for justice and a fair hearing here in the United States, but I am afraid that by the time people find out the truth, it will be too late.”
The British Foreign Office said it had made its “usual representations” against the death penalty and that it had registered a complaint with the US Appeals Court about not being informed when Carty was first arrested.
A Foreign Office statement read: “We are resolutely opposed to the use of the death penalty. Our prime concern is to avoid the execution of British nationals. We have made a number of representations to the US Government, on this case and others, concerning our view on the death penalty. The US are fully aware of HMG’s stance on the death penalty.”
A spokesman for the British Consulate-General in Houston said the consulate remained in “close contact” with Carty and her legal representation in the US and UK, and would continue to provide her with consular assistance.
According to Associated Press writer Raphael G. Satter, the British government filed a legal brief on Carty’s behalf on May 4 urging that she be granted a new trial, and that the British Foreign Office indicated it would fight any move to execute her.
Carty’s British legal team described her trial as “catastrophically flawed” and said the American judges have refused to hear new evidence that the conviction was unsafe and she is innocent.
Carty maintained her innocence and stated that she was set up by the three men who claimed she recruited them to help kidnap and murder Rodriguez so she could have her four-day-old son. Rodriguez’s body was found in the trunk of Carty’s car.
She said the three men were former drugs traffickers who wanted revenge on her for her work as a secret informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
