Some of the news headlines this week focused attention on the plight of Linda Carty, a 50-year-old woman of Anguillian parentage, who has been on death row in Texas for a number of years now, awaiting execution by lethal injection.

A recent photograph of Linda carty

The reports state that the former primary school teacher, who was born in St. Kitts and eventually migrated to the United States, was sentenced to death in 2002 after being convicted of taking part in the 2001 murder of 25-year-old Joana Rodriquez. Her family and campaigners claim that she was not properly represented at her original trial and that she is innocent of the crime for which she has been convicted.

On Thursday, September 10, it was arranged for Linda, who holds a British Overseas Territory Passport, to appear in a life-size cardboard cut out at Trafalgar Square in London to make an appeal in a recorded message to save her life. She was quoted as saying in part: “Time is now running out and I appeal to every one of you and to the British Government, to please help me…I am sorry if I sound like a desperate woman. I am desperate because the British people may be my last hope. If they ask for my life to be spared maybe Texas will listen.” She has also called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to raise her case with the US authorities, a request she has made before to the former British Government of Tony Blair.

The Director of the Legal Charity Reprieve, which has been making representation on her behalf, was quoted as stating that “Linda Carty’s speech at Trafalgar Square shows that she is a terrified woman, and with good reason. Texas plans to kill her by lethal injection, which is a painful and lonely death. The British Government must do everything in its power to prevent Linda’s death.”

Linda Carty has always maintained her innocence, stating among other things, that she was not even at the scene of the crime.

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