500th person to be executed in TX since the restoration of dp is a black woman who murdered a white
woman.
On Wednesday, Texas is scheduled to execute its 500th death-row inmate since the Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976. The state has executed nearly five times as many people as Virginia, the second state on the list.
Texass death penalty system is notorious for its high tolerance of ineffective counsel for defendants, overly zealous prosecutors, and racial discrimination in jury selection. The case of Kimberly McCarthy, the woman scheduled for execution, seems tainted by all three.
Ms. McCarthy is an African-American who was sentenced to death in 2002 for murdering a white woman. Thats not surprising: In Texas as well as other states, a black person who murders a white person is more likely to receive the death penalty than when the victim is black.
The 12-person jury that convicted and sentenced Ms. McCarthy included only one person who wasnt white, after prosecutors used their peremptory, or automatic, challenges to strike three other non-whites. That was in apparent violation of a Supreme Court ruling against purposeful exclusion of minorities from a jury when a minority is the defendant.
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http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/texas-reaches-death-penalty-milestone/