I do not think there is much there that would persuade me beyond reasonable doubt that she is guilty but then it is Wikipedia. A court heard the circumstances and found her guilty and was presumably privy to more info.
But then again, the court was a Texan court and (no offence to Texans) I don’t necessarily trust a Texan court, especially with a black woman.
All the information I can find is biased one way or the other. What’s the straight dope?
I find the concept of any drug dealer ‘framing’ anybody a total deal killer. If she does claim that, she is either a lunatic or guilty as sin.
I say guilty.
I would expect that the vast majority of Texas trials result in a conviction based on the evidence. Just because the state is home to numerous mindless idiots and crooked prosecutors doesn’t mean a conviction should be suspected as improper simply because it occurs in Texas.
As handsomeharry has said, framing someone for murder doesn’t sound like drug dealer activity. They would have just killed her.
While I agree that convictions in Texas are based on the evidence just as they are everywhere else, the evidence presented in Texas may not be the same as it would be if the trial were to take place elsewhere.
As of May 2010 the state of Texas is responsible for having 41 convictions overturned on DNA evidence out of 254 nationally (16%.) They notoriously allowed evidence of arson to be used that would have been inadmissable at trial almost everywhere else in the country and failed to reverse the conviction of the defendant who was put to death even after the invalidity of the evidence and the lack of a crime was exposed. They have executed the retarded.
They spend approximately $200 million annually for a public defenders’ office that handled 470,000 requests in 2010. That is $425 per defendant.
When it comes to murder plots, it seems to me that deals to co-defendants, based on testimony against other defendants should be illegal. Does it make sense to tell someone you suspect is guilty of murder that you will give him a lesser sentence only if he testifies against someone else? Does the phrase “no honor among thieves” ring a bell? I suspect it is true for murderers as well.
The facts as asserted in Wikipedia certainly make this woman sound guilty, but the history of Texas and the death penalty call for a thorough investigation of every conviction and a moratorium until it is completed.
Per your link, three courts, a trial court and two appellate courts have seen the evidence and concluded that she is in fact guilty. To illustrate, a jury of 12, and about 8 judges (the appeals courts). I am not inclined to disbelieve them.
Hard to see how drug dealers could have framed her even if that was their desire (and I agree that angry drug dealers usually prefer more direct revenge). According to the article, various people who encountered Carty testified she said she was going to have a baby. How would drug dealers arrange to have these people give false testimony like that?
If it was a frame up, how did she know [ul][li]that two cars were involved, not just one[/li][li]where the cars with the victims in them were, and how did she know soon enough after the crime that the baby was still alive?[/li][/ul]
Well, I don’t think you have to be a real strong death penalty advocate to agree that murdering a woman so you can kidnap her baby should be a capital crime.
I realize some people argue that there shouldn’t be capital punishment for any crime. Fair enough. But I don’t see any reason why Linda Carty should be singled out as being especially undeserving of the death penalty. There are plenty of people on death row whose cases are a lot more questionable than hers.