Huntsville: The US state of Texas is preparing to execute its 500th convict since the death penalty was restored in 1976, a record in a country where capital punishment is in decline elsewhere.
On Wednesday, in the absence of a last minute pardon, 52-year-old Kimberly McCarthy will receive a lethal injection in Huntsville Penitentiary for the 1997 murder of 71-year-old retired college professor Dorothy Booth.
According to Death Penalty Information Centre’s figures, there are 3,125 convicts on death row in the United States and, if Wednesday’s execution goes ahead, McCarthy will be the 17th prisoner put to death in the first six months of 2013.
AFP
