US judge postpones Texas woman's execution
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CHICAGO (AFP) - A US judge on Tuesday granted a last-minute reprieve to Texas death row inmate Kimberly McCarthy, who had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in the United States since 2010.
McCarthy - who has been on death row for 14 years - had been due to be executed at 6pm (7am Singapore time) after the US Supreme Court rejected her final appeal, but was instead given a postponement of about two months.
"The trial court granted a motion to reset the date. It is now set April 3," her attorney, Wayne Huff, told AFP. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed the postponement, without offering an explanation.
McCarthy's lawyers had asked Texas Governor Rick Perry to issue a 30-day reprieve, arguing that racial bias had had an impact on the case. McCarthy, 51, is black. Her victim, 70-year-old retired professor Dorothy Booth, was white.
