"THE REQUEST FOR A RETRIAL WAS BASED AROUND CLAIMS SHE WAS GIVEN AN INADEQUATE DEFENCE LAWYER DURING THE ORIGINAL TRIAL AND THAT THE UK GOVERNMENT WAS BLOCKED FROM PROVIDING SUPPORT. THE FOREIGN OFFICE HAS PREVIOUSLY COMPLAINED OF "INEFFECTIVE COUNSEL" AT A COURT HEARING IN SUPPORT OF CARTY. SHE LOST AN EARLIER APPEAL IN SEPTEMBER WHEN THE FIFTH CIRCUIT COURT IN NEW ORLEANS OPTED NOT TO OVERTURN HER CONVICTION."
BBC NEWS:
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BACKGROUND: Linda Carty, a British citizen, has spent eight years on death row in Texas. Her supporters claim that she is innocent – and that only the Supreme Court of the United States could save her from lethal injection in the county with the highest execution rate in the US.
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"A British grandmother on death row in Texas for killing a young mother has had a last-ditch appeal rejected," the BBC News story, published earlier today begins, under the heading, "Death row Briton Linda Carty loses US appeal: Linda Carty is convicted of murdering her 25-year-old neighbour."
"A British grandmother on death row in Texas for killing a young mother has had a last-ditch appeal rejected," the story continues.
"Linda Carty, 51, faces execution after the US Supreme Court refused to review her abduction and murder case.
The former teacher, who was born on St Kitts to parents from the British territory of Anguilla, is one of 10 condemned women in Texas.
Campaigners say her conviction in 2002 for the murder of a 25-year-old woman was "catastrophically flawed".
She was also convicted of snatching the woman's child in Houston in 2001.
Duct-tape
Carty's legal team had submitted a video plea to the court alongside a document from the British government outlining its concerns over her sentence.
In the video submission, she said: "If I have to die, I pray that my family and my mum and my daughter will not look and feel ashamed of their daughter or their mother because I was guilty, but realises the state of Texas has failed me."
Mountain View Unit
Ms Carty is on death row at Mountain View Unit women's prison, Texas
The request for a retrial was based around claims she was given an inadequate defence lawyer during the original trial and that the UK government was blocked from providing support.
The Foreign Office has previously complained of "ineffective counsel" at a court hearing in support of Carty.
She lost an earlier appeal in September when the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans opted not to overturn her conviction.
She was put on death row over the kidnap and murder of Joana Rodriguez, who was seized with her four-day-old son by three men on 16 May 2001.
The baby was later found unharmed in a car, but Ms Rodriguez was found suffocated with duct-tape on her mouth and a plastic bag over her head.
Carty, who has been backed by human rights group Reprieve, has always maintained she was framed by three men in revenge for her work as an informant with a drug enforcement agency.
It is claimed Texas authorities and her defence lawyer neglected to inform the British Consulate that she held a UK dependent territory passport.
Paul Lynch, the British consul general in Texas, said this represented a "terrible failure" that led to her death sentence."
The story can be found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8658354.stm
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
