Texas Judge Postpones Woman’s Execution, Lawyers Argue Jury Bias

Kimberly McCarthy’s attorneys says racial discrimination played a role in her conviction

A Texas woman, scheduled to die Tuesday under the state’s death penalty, has been given a reprieve, allowing her lawyers time to argue that racial discrimination played a role in choosing the jury that convicted her of murder in 1997. Dallas County District Court Judge Larry Mitchell delayed the 51-year-old’s execution. She is African American, but her 12-person jury was all white, except for one. That contrasted with Dallas County’s 22.5 percent black population. McCarthy was convicted of murder, having cut off her 71-year-old neighbor’s finger to take a diamond ring, which she later pawned, according to the Texas attorney general’s summary of the case. Women are rarely executed in the U.S.; only 12 female inmates have been put to death since capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The last woman executed was a Virginia inmate in 2010. (Reuters)

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