Linda Carty has spent almost twenty years on death row – the only British woman to do so in the west.
In the British Grandma on Death Row special, aired March 22 at 9pm, Susannah Reid visited the 63-year-old in a high security Texas prison where the grandmother has plead “not guilty” since her conviction – despite substantial evidence against her.
With access to the police custody footage and key witness Chris Robinson, Reid breaks down Linda Carty’s story.
Who is Linda Carty?
Born on Caribbean Island Saint Kitts, at the time a British colony, Carty holds British citizenship.
In 1982 Linda emigrated to the US to study pharmacology in the city she later committed her crimes. She was convicted of auto theft and the impersonation of an FBI agent in the early 1990s.
Managing to avoid a sentence, the grandmother was allowed to be on probation in exchange for a role as a drug informant. This deal was broken by her later arrest on drug charges.
Why is Linda Carty on death row?
Susanna Reid explained in her new documentary how Linda ended up facing execution.
She said: "The court heard Linda orchestrated the kidnap of her pregnant neighbour, Joana Rodriguez, equipped with scrubs and scissors, as she intended to cut the baby out.
“Linda didn’t know that Joana had already had her baby four days earlier. Joana and her tiny baby boy were kidnapped and Joana was suffocated to death."
If Carty is put to death she will be the first female to face capital punishment since Ruth Ellis, who was executed in 1955.
On May 16 2001, Carty and three co-defendants were convicted of kidnapping 25-year-old Joana Rodriguez and her four-day-old son in Houston, Texas.
Rodriguez suffocated after she was tied up and placed inside the trunk of a car, said officials. Her son, Ray, was discovered late that night in a different car and returned to his father.
Police suspected Carty after her claims of being pregnant while not appearing so.
Carty received a death sentence, while her co-defendants, Chris Robinson, Gerald Anderson and Carlos Williams, were sentenced to long prison terms.
What’s the verdict?
Linda intended to keep the baby for herself after kidnapping and killing his mother, prosecutors claimed – although Carty has always maintained her innocence.
Barrister Hugh Southey QC has spent the last decade campaigning for Carty’s release claiming that she did not have high quality representation at the murder trial.
Validity of witnesses who testified against Linda at her trial have been brought into question, complicating this case, while all applications for appeal have been unsuccessful.
