British woman on Texas death row loses Supreme Court appeal of murder conviction

Brit on Texas death row loses high court appeal

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a British woman on death row in Texas for killing a young mother.

The justices on Monday rejected an appeal from Linda Carty, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing a woman whose child she also snatched in Houston in 2001. Carty has complained that her trial lawyers were deficient.

The British government and human rights groups have aided Carty’s cause.

Carty is one of 10 condemned women in Texas. She is a former teacher from St. Kitts in the British Virgin Islands.

In September, a taped voice recording of Carty begging Britons to help save her life was broadcast into London’s Trafalgar Square.

Carty was sentenced to death in 2002 for kidnapping a woman and her baby, and killing the mother. Prosecutors say Carty masterminded the abduction so she could masquerade as the child’s mother in an effort to salvage her troubled relationship with her boyfriend.

The British human rights group Reprieve has argued that the case against Carty was full of inconsistencies. Reprieve also said she should have received assistance from the British consulate at the time of her arrest but did not.