Kimberly McCarthy will be executed in the state of Texas today, making her the first woman to be executed in the United States in more than two years.
McCarthy will die by lethal injection before 6 p.m. tonight at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas.
McCarthy, 51, was convicted of killing her elderly neighbor, Dorothy Booth, in July 1997. McCarthy pretended to want to borrow sugar from Booth, then bumrushed the 71-year-old woman and stabbed her five times, according to prosecutors.
Kimberly McCarthy is said to have also cut off her neighbor’s finger to retrieve her diamond ring. McCarthy pawned the jewelry.
McCarthy was found guilty in 1998 by a Dallas County jury of murdering Booth and sentenced to death; the case was overturned because McCarthy did not have legal representation when she was questioned about the crime. In 2002, a Dallas County jury found McCarthy guilty again, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld with the second conviction in 2004.
In addition to murdering her neighbor, McCarty was implicated in the deaths of two other elderly women; one was beaten with a meat cleaver, and the other was killed with a hammer.
In total, 12 females have been put to death since 1976, the year capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court.
