TX - Linda Carty Texas Death Row inmate

kemo

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The case of Death Row inmate Linda Carty has become a "cause celebre" in the UK. It seems that Linda is a British Subject. The claim is that she is factually innocent and is being railroaded. Apparently she has run out of appeals and is in real danger of execution.

All of the sources I have found present the case in a "pro-defendant" light. The prosecution's theory of the crime is that Linda arranged to have three aquaintances kill the victim in order to "steal" her three day old baby and claim it as her own; apparently in hopes of persuading her boyfriend not to leave her. The three aqaitances testified against her and did not get the DP. There was no physical evidence. The primary evidence against her was her boyfriend who claimed that she said she was pregnant with his child in the months leading up to the killing. There was also a neighbor who claimed that she said she was pregnant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Carty

http://www.fairtrials.net/cases/spotlight/linda_carty/
 
In a rare post-conviction hearing ordered by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, four witnesses testified last week that they were coerced and threatened by a pair of Harris County veteran prosecutors in a case that sent a Houston woman to death row 14 years ago.

Linda Carty, a former teacher and ex-DEA informant, was sentenced to die after prosecutors convinced a jury that she organized three men to invade an apartment and kidnap her neighbor, Joana Rodriguez, all in order to snatch Rodriguez's newborn baby in May 2001.

But in the hearing, prosecutors Connie Spence and Craig Goodhart were accused of destroying case notes and emails, of hiding at least 18 recorded witness statements from Carty's original defense team, and of coercing testimony to ensure Carty got a death sentence. A retired DEA agent testified that he was threatened by Spence. A star prosecution witness claims the pair instructed him to lie in a series of private meetings.

(...)

Texas and federal courts have denied Carty's prior appeals. But her newer claims of prosecutorial misconduct were found worthy of further review by the Court of Criminal Appeals in February 2015. (...)

Testimony is expected to conclude Tuesday. After that, Garner said he will hear closing arguments, review evidence and issue findings later this summer on whether to accept or reject Carty's multiple claims of prosecutorial misconduct. If he rules in Carty's favor, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals would then decide whether to order a new trial.

Much more @ the link: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...340431.php?t=5034ad2406&cmpid=twitter-premium
 
Harris County under the tenure of former DA Chuck Rosenthal.

No surprise that allegations of prosecutorial misconduct may have merit.

One of the few positive legacies of the Rosenthal years is the development of reporting from the Chronicle as some of the best in the state and the entire country.
 
A district court judge ruled Thursday that Harris County prosecutors did not engage in misconduct or hide information that would have changed the outcome of Linda Carty's 2002 capital murder trial.

Attorneys for Carty, a British citizen and grandmother, had argued that the death-row inmate should be granted a new trial and sentencing hearing. They contended witness statements hidden for 14 years proved that her conviction was based on flawed testimony used to portray her as the mastermind of a kidnapping and murder plot in 2001.

But Judge David Garner, a Galveston-based visiting judge, found prosecutors had overwhelming evidence of Carty's guilt from multiple other sources. Although he found that some witness statements should have been turned over to her original defense attorneys before her 2002 trial, he also ruled that the material likely would not have altered the course of her conviction and that witnesses had not been coerced.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...ds-no-misconduct-by-Harris-County-9198999.php
 
Court rejects appeal from British woman on Texas death row

"HOUSTON – ...The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the ruling of a lower court, which rejected Linda Carty's arguments that prosecutors had coerced witnesses and improperly hidden information that could have affected the outcome of her capital murder trial....

The appeals court ruling supported the findings of District Judge David Garner, who decided in 2016 that Harris County prosecutors should have turned over some witness statements to Carty's trial lawyers, but that the evidence was overwhelming and wouldn't have changed the trial's outcome. Garner also determined that prosecutors didn't knowingly use perjured testimony or allow untrue testimony at the trial.

In a concurring opinion joined by two other appeals court judges, Judge Bert Richardson wrote that while Carty's lawyers contended that prosecutors committed "egregious misconduct," those claims weren't supported in the court record.

"None of the evidence eliminates her or even casts reasonable doubt on her role as a party to this offense," Richardson wrote.

She does not yet have an execution date..."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/07/court-rejects-appeal-from-british-woman-on-texas-death-row.html
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Supreme Court turns down appeal from British woman on Texas death row

Nov. 18, 2018

"The Supreme Court last week turned down an appeal from a British woman sentenced to die for a Harris County murder-kidnapping, moving the case one step closer to a possible execution date.

Linda Carty was sent to death row in 2001 after she was convicted of masterminding a plot to murder her 20-year-old neighbor and steal the woman's baby in order to save her own common-law marriage.

In the years since the killing of Joana Rodriguez, Carty has consistently professed her innocence, insisting she was railroaded by prosecutors who failed to turn over evidence and coerced witnesses to win a conviction.

Yet the nation's highest court has now turned down her most recent appeal without comment, refusing to review the argument that the combination of bad lawyering and "egregious prosecutorial misconduct" was enough to make a difference in the outcome of the case...."

Supreme Court turns down appeal from British woman on Texas death row
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Linda Carty - On Death Row [Prison Documentary]

Jun 11, 2018


4D7AD0FC00000578-5869205-image-a-9_1529581386635.jpg


( Joana Rodriguez)
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