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Topics: True Crime, Good Morning Britain, UK News, US News, Crime, True Life
Madison Burgess
Topics: True Crime, Good Morning Britain, UK News, US News, Crime, True Life
The only British woman on death row in the US has lifted the lid on her deepest fear when it comes to her execution.
Linda Carty, 66, is currently on death row in Texas after she was convicted of the kidnap and murder of her neighbour, Joana Rodriguez, in 2002, in order to steal Rodriguez's newborn son.
For those unfamiliar with the tragic case, the 25-year-old mother was kidnapped and suffocated to death and her body was subsequently found in the boot of Carty's car, while her baby son Ray was found unharmed.
Prosecutors claimed that Carty was desperate to have another baby and so conspired to kill Joana and raise baby Ray herself.
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Carty is a former school teacher and a grandmother, and she is set to become the first British national to be executed on death row in more than 50 years - since Ruth Ellis in 1955.
She was born in Saint Kitts in the West Indies, and holds British citizenship as the island was a British colony at the time of her birth.
She has maintained her innocence throughout her entire trial and time on death row, claiming she was framed by drug dealers.
Meanwhile, three men were also convicted for their involvement in the crime, but none of them received death sentences - Gerald Anderson, Chris Robinson and Carlos Williams.
She has insisted that she was framed by three men because of her work as an informant with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to Radio Times, she said: "It was too difficult just to kill me, so they hatched this plot".
Carty has been on death row for more than twenty years and her execution date is yet to be set due to numerous appeals and legal issues with the case.
But, as it could be creeping closer, she has revealed her biggest fear when it comes to her execution.
Four months ago, she appeared on an episode of LMN’s Women On Death Row series, which delved into her case.
And a clip from the YouTube video showed Carty saying: “Do I want to die for something that I didn’t do - no - and that's my fear. It’s not dying, it’s why I have to die.”
Back in 2022, the grandmother also did an interview with Good Morning Britain host Susannah Reid, for a show called British Grandma on Death Row.
In the harrowing documentary, Reid explained the extent of Carty’s crimes to viewers.
She said: “The court heard Linda orchestrated the kidnap of her pregnant neighbour, Joana Rodriguez, equipped with scrubs and scissors, as she intended to cut the baby out.
“Linda didn’t know that Joana had already had her baby four days earlier. Joana and her tiny baby boy were kidnapped and Joana was suffocated to death."
In the episode, she also told Susannah: “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.”