A state judge has decided to halt the execution of a woman in Texas. Kimberly McCarthy, a 51-year old, would have been the first woman in the US to be put to death since 2010. State District Judge Larry Mitchell gave the woman a reprieve just five hours before she was set to be killed for the murder of a neighbor back in 1997.
Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Shelly Yeatts says McCarthy’s execution date is April 3. The woman’s attorneys argue that McCarthy was prosecuted on the basis of race. She is black, but 11 jurors were white, with only one black person. Her case shines a light on racial disparities across the nation, where people of color are regularly convicted by juries that have few or no African Americans.
McCarthy was a former nursing home therapist and the judge delayed her execution so that her attorneys would have more time to appeal her case. The woman was convicted of stabbing, beating and robbing a 71-year old neighbor. When she found out about her reprieve, she was in a small holding cell near the death chamber, preparing for the execution.
“I’m happy right now over that,” she told prison agency spokesman John Hurt. “There’s still work to be done on my case.”
Her attorneys are happy to see that McCarthy might have a chance to get more justice in her case.
“We are very pleased that we will now have an opportunity to present evidence of discrimination in the selection of the jury that sentenced Kimberly McCarthy to death,” said Maurie Levin, a University of Texas law professor and McCarthy’s lawyer.
“Of the twelve jurors seated at trial, all were white, except one, and eligible non-white jurors were excluded from serving by the state. … These facts must be understood in the context of the troubling and long-standing history of racial discrimination in jury selection in Dallas County, including at the time of Ms. McCarthy’s trial,” Levin said.
McCarthy was linked to three murders, all of
which took place while she was addicted to crack cocaine. She would
have been just the 13th woman to face the death penalty in the history
of the United States.
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