Texas Execution Of 500th Prisoner, Kimberly McCarthy: Texas Has Carried Out 40% Of US Executions

Texas has now executed its 500th inmate. Kimberly McCarthy was given the death penalty for the murder of her 71-year-old neighbor.

McCarthy, the 500th prisoner executed in Texas, was also the first woman executed in the U.S. in almost three years.

She was pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m. CDT. Twenty minutes before that, officials at the Texas prison administered a lethal dose of pentobarbital.

Texas has now carried out 40% of the executions in the U.S. since capital punishment was reinstated.

McCarthy, 52, was convicted of a robbery, beating, and assault of her neighbor, Dorothy Booth, a retired professor. Authorities say McCarthy cut off Booth's finger to remove her wedding ring, and then pawned it for crack cocaine.

Booth agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar; McCarthy then attacked her with a butcher knife and candelabra. Apparently "sugar" meant crack.

Three slayings have been linked to McCarthy, a nursing home therapist who became a crack addict.

McCarthy's lawyer asked the proceedings to be stayed, arguing that black jurors were excluded from her trial. McCarthy is black and her victim was white. All but one of the twelve jurors was white.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied her request. They said she should have brought up her concerns earlier.

McCarthy blamed the death of Booth on two drug dealers; evidence of this was never found.

McCarthy is the ex-wife of Aaron Michaels, who founded the New Black Panther Party. The two had separated before the crime, but he testified on her behalf.

Although Texas has executed 500 prisoners now, McCarthy is the fourth woman put to death in Texas and the 13th in the United States as a whole.

32 states currently have the death penalty.