A rare female execution by lethal injection is scheduled for later today in Texas for Kimberly McCarthy, who was convicted of brutally murdering her neighbor in 1997 and cutting off her finger.
McCarthy, 51, was convicted of breaking into her 71-year-old neighbor's home. The lady, Dorothy Booth, allowed McCarthy to enter her home after she asked to borrow some sugar.
McCarthy went on to stab Booth five times and cut off her finger in order to steal her diamond ring which she later sold at a pawn shop, according to the Texas attorney general's summary of the case.
"(McCarthy) quite literally took the woman, put her left hand on a chopping block of the kitchen and then used a knife to sever her ring finger while she was still alive," said Greg Davis, the former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted McCarthy. "She took the ring from the finger that had been severed and continued the attack until she finally killed her."
Booth's DNA was found on a 10-inch butcher knife recovered from McCarthy's home. McCarthy was arrested after police found her name on a pawn shop receipt for the ring.
McCarthy also was believed to be responsible for the murders of two other elderly women, one using a meat tenderizer as a weapon and another using a claw hammer, according to the Attorney General's summary.
Her execution, set for Tuesday evening, would be the first since a Virginia inmate, Teresa Lewis, became the 12th woman put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 allowed capital punishment to resume. In that same time, 1,309 men have been executed.
McCarthy will be the first female to face execution in more than two years. She will be the 13th female since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 to die by execution, according to Reuters,
