Gran on death row for horrifying murder gives chilling three word explanation
A British grandmother has been rotting on death row in the state of Texas in the US for the past two decades after being convicted of murdering a young mother.
Linda Carty, originally from St. Kitts and Nevis - which was a British territory at the time of her birth - was found guilty of slaying her neighbour Joana Rodriguez.
Carty, 66, was deemed to have orchestrated the kidnapping of the victim's newborn son alongside three men in May, 2001.
New mum Joana, 25, was snatched from her Houston flat along with her four-day-old son before she was suffocated to death.
The newborn baby was discovered unharmed in a vehicle that same day - but his mother was found dead with duct tape covering her mouth and a plastic bag wrapped around her head, reports the Mirror.
She was uncovered in the boot of a car Carty was renting at the time.
The death row prisoner appeared on 'British Grandma On Death Row' with Susanna Reid, which was broadcast on ITV.
Carty continues to protest her innocence as the threat of lethal injection hangs over her and insists "I wasn't there".
She insists she was convicted primarily on the testimony of her co-accused - Gerald Anderson, Chris Robinson and Carlos Williams were charged as Carty's accomplices and received lengthy prison sentences.
But Carty was the sole suspect who was handed the death penalty.
When questioned by Susanna: "If you weren't the one responsible, how did it happen?" An emotional Carty responded: "I don't know for sure because I wasn't there. But I can truthfully say, and I can truthfully look you in the eye, and tell you that I had nothing to do with this crime."
The British grandmother was sentenced to death by lethal injection on 21 February 2002.
Carty previously told Sky News from behind bars in Huntsville Prison back in 2012 she was, '110 percent innocent'. She insisted in the interview that she felt for the victim's family but maintained that she was framed for the crime.
The former schoolteacher said: "She's somebody's child too and she's somebody's daughter. So for me it's not only a healing process for me but to show the families that the person you have been hating all these years and that you thought because the state of Texas told you this is who did it, did not commit this crime."
Carty is currently being held on death row at the Mountain View Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Gatesville. She does not yet have an execution date.
The death penalty has long been outlawed in the UK. The last British woman to be executed was Ruth Ellis in 1955 who was hanged for shooting her lover outside a North London pub.
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