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Rare Female Execution: Does Kimberly McCarthy Deserve The Death Penalty? [VIDEO]

By IDigital Times Staff Reporter on January 28, 2013 8:45 PM EST 0

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Kimberly McCarthy is out of options. A rare female execution is slated for Tuesday evening in Texas after McCarthy was found guilty of butchering her neighbor with a kitchen knife and cutting board in order to pawn a ring to buy cocaine. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

A rare female execution will occur on Tuesday evening in Texas. Followers of the case still aren't sure the court made the right decision. But former nursing home therapist Kimberly McCarthy is out of options.

McCarthy, who was found guilty of chopping up her neighbor's hand on a kitchen cutting board, tried to appeal multiple times. But three weeks ago the U.S. Supreme Court said it would not review her case. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also turned down a clemency petition. In a final attempt to save McCarthy, her attorneys asked Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins to delay the lethal injection slated for Tuesday night. But Watkins hasn't responded.

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A Dallas County jury found McCarthy guilty in 1997 for the vicious killing of her neighbor, a retired college psychology professor, when they connected McCarthy to two other similar slayings.

"Once the jury heard about those other two, we were certainly in a deep hole," McCarthy's lead trial attorney, Doug Parks, told the Associated Press.

The lethal injection will be the first female execution since 2010, when Teresa Lewis was put to death for using sex and money to arrange for the murders of her husband and stepson in October 2002. Lewis was the 12th woman executed since the U.S. Supreme Court said in the 1970s that capital punishment could resume. In that same time, more than 1,300 men have been executed.

The evidence was so brutal that jurors felt a rare female execution was in order. "[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," Greg Davis, the former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted McCarthy, said. "She took the ring from the finger that had been severed and continued the attack until she finally killed her."

McCarthy allegedly stole her neighbor's Mercedes, drove to Dallas, pawned the ring and used the money to buy cocaine at a crack house. According to evidence submitted, McCarthy also used stolen credit cards to buy liquor.

Watch a video here to find out more about Teresa Lewis' execution in 2010...

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