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Death Row Briton pleads for her life by 'appearing' on the fourth plinth
Miranda Bryant and Emma Rowley10.09.09
A British grandmother on Death Row in the US today "appeared" on Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth in an appeal to Londoners to save her from lethal injection.
Linda Carty, 50, was sentenced to death in 2002 for her role in the kidnap and murder of a 25-year-old woman but her trial has been criticised as "catastrophically flawed".
A life-size cut-out of Carty was placed on the plinth alongside a recorded message as part of the Antony Gormley's One & Other exhibition.
In the message, which started "Hello Trafalgar Square" and was recorded at her prison in Texas on Tuesday, she talked about the injustice of her trial, her background and her love of cricket.
Carty, who could be executed next May, said: "I'm sorry If I sound like a desperate woman. I am desperate, because the British people may be my last hope. If they ask for my life to be spared, maybe Texas will listen.
"Time is now running out and I appeal to every one of you and to the British Government to please help me," the former primary school teacher pleaded.
The plinth slot was won by Brian Capaloff, an opponent of the death penalty. He contacted legal charity Reprieve, which put him in touch with Carty. The charity's representatives were with him today.
Mr Capaloff, 46, a manager of a homelessness centre, from Falkirk, Scotland, held plaques with extracts of the interview in which Carty criticised her lawyer, and threw leaflets to watching crowds. "It was amazing. The response was excellent," he said. "I read up on this case and thought it was an excellent one to publicise.
"It would be amazing to speak to Linda. I don't think there's any evidence that proves she is guilty beyond reasonable doubt, and I am against the death penalty anyway."
Carty, a St Kitts-born British national, was jailed after being convicted over the abduction and murder of Joana Rodriguez, seized with her four-day-old son by three men in 2001. The baby was found unharmed but his mother had suffocated.
Sally Rowen, legal director for death penalty at Reprieve, said: "We want to raise people's awareness through this. We want people to write to Linda and the governor of Texas and show how strongly they're opposed."
'I was framed by kidnappers
On 16 May, 2001 Linda Carty and three co-defendants were said to have walked into the home of 25-year-old Joana Rodriguez in Houston, Texas.
The victim and her baby were kidnapped and Ms Rodriguez tied up and put in the boot of a car. She died from suffocation.
Carty claims she was framed by the kidnappers because of her work as an Drug Enforcement Agency informant.
But prosecutors said the men were hired by Carty who intended to "cut the baby out" and pass the child off as her own.
Reprieve says her defence should have challenged this, as the baby had already been born.
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