Texas executes 500th inmate since death penalty reinstated

Kimberly McCarthy

WASHINGTON : The US state of Texas on Wednesday executed its 500th convict since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, a record in a country where capital punishment is in decline elsewhere.

Kimberly McCarthy, 52, was declared dead by lethal injection at 6:37 pm  (23:37) GMT in the “Walls Unit,” a red brick prison in the small town of  Huntsville, prison officials said.

After 14 years on death row, time stopped for the former drug addict who  was condemned to death for the savage murder of 71-year-old retired college  professor Dorothy Booth in 1997.

“As the lethal drugs began to take effect her last words were ’God is  good,’” the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a press release.

McCarthy, who is black, received two last-minute reprieves in January and  April due to allegations of racial discrimination during the selection of what  became her all-white jury.

But after a Texas appeals court refused to reopen the case, she ran out of  both options and time.

Some of the protesters gathered at
the expected execution of Kimberly
McCarthy in Huntsville.
(Jennifer Emily)

“If there was something to appeal, I would,” her attorney Maurie Levin told  AFP shortly before the execution.

“For procedural reasons, the claims were never reviewed on the merits.”  

Some 1,336 people have been executed across the United States since the  Supreme Court lifted a moratorium on the application of the death penalty in  1976. More than a third of the executions were carried out in Texas.

“It’s very sad, horrific — like in the middle-ages,” said Gloria Rubac of  the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement.

“At some point, Texas has to come to the 21st century, the world is 
watching us.”    Rubac was among around 30 death penalty opponents gathered outside the  prison for a vigil as McCarthy’s execution time approached.

They held signs declaring “death penalty is racist,” “end executions in  Texas” and “execute justice not people” as they stood behind yellow tape in a  special zone set up across the street by prison officials.    

Dorothy Booth

“This 500th execution has put a spotlight on Texas, but I hope that light  is going to bring some fresh air here, put pressure to make a change,” Sheryl  Smith, a pastor with the United Methodist Church who attended the vigil, told  AFP after McCarthy’s death was announced.

McCarthy is just the 13th woman to be executed in the United States since  the death penalty was reinstated. Texas has executed three other women and  eight women are current on death row in the Lone Star state.

“It’s a tragedy,” activist Dennis Longmire, a university professor who  lives in Huntsville, said in a telephone interview from the vigil.

“But the 500th execution should be receiving as much attention as the first  one and the 501st one. And tonight’s execution is no less tragic than the next  one or the one we had two weeks ago.”  

Opinion polls consistently show that between 60 and 65 percent of Americans  back capital punishment, indicating that support goes beyond the roughly 50-50  left-right divide in US electoral politics.

However, juries and state officials have become increasingly less willing  to impose the death penalty.

There are currently 3,125 convicts on death row in the United States and  McCarthy was the 17th prisoner put to death in the first six months of 2013,  according to the Death Penalty Information Center, an academic watchdog.

But numbers are dropping: 43 people were executed in 2012 down from a peak  of 71 in 2002.

American juries are also imposing capital punishment in fewer cases, with  only 78 death sentences last year, down by around three-quarters since the  1990s — although violent crime is also down.

While 32 of the 50 US states still have the death penalty on the books many  have imposed a de facto moratorium, with few or none of the executions carried  out and convicts languishing on death row.--AFP

Courtesy: New Straits Times