Please sing Amazing Grace for Linda Carty

About Linda Carty

Linda Carty is a British grandmother now facing imminent execution in Texas. She was condemned to death in 2002, after a catastrophically flawed trial, for allegedly ordering the murder of her neighbour.

Linda’s court-appointed defence lawyer, Jerry Guerinot, has seen more clients go to death row than any other attorney in the United States, yet his multiple failures emerged only when Reprieve took on Linda’s case. It became clear that Mr Guerinot:

• only spent 15 minutes with Linda before her capital trial
• falsely claimed that Linda refused to meet with him until he bribed her with a chocolate bar (she is fatally allergic to chocolate)
• failed to spot obvious inconsistencies in the prosecution case
• failed to interview key witnesses
• failed not to present evidence on her behalf
• did not investigate key aspects of the case despite claiming court money to do so

Neither, crucially, did Mr Guerinot inform the British government of Linda’s situation until it was too late. As a result the British government could not intervene on Linda’s behalf in a timely and effective manner.

Clive Stafford Smith said: “If the British government had been involved, at the very least Jerry Guerinot wouldn’t have tried the case and Linda would not be where she is today. That was the difference between life and death.”

The British government has made great efforts to save Linda Carty’s life. It filed a strong ‘friend of the court’ briefing to the US Supreme Court contending that she deserved an urgent retrial because of the failings of her court-appointed defence counsel. The Supreme Court has ignored these pleas and Linda’s conviction and sentence have been upheld.

Described as 'a star who could have entered politics' by the former Prime Minister of St Kitts, where she was born, Linda today faces an unimaginable fate: she will be executed within months unless the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, grants her clemency.

It will be an uphill battle to convince Governor Perry to spare Linda’s life. Since he was elected, over 200 people have been executed and only one death row prisoner has been granted clemency.

More information about the case on: http://www.reprieve.org.uk/lindacarty

The Amazing Grace song plea

Reprieve is organizing an “Amazing Grace for Linda Carty” campaign. The idea is that citizens can show their support to Linda and ask the State of Texas to spare Linda’s life, by singing Amazing Grace.

To this end, we are asking people to organise a singing session of Amazing Grace in their local community, whether in churches, schools, universities or at home with friends and family, to record the event and to upload the footage here. The material will then be collated in a video plea that we intend to submit to the State of Texas.

How you can participate to our “Amazing Grace” plea

i) Register with us so that we can keep track of all the events organized - please contact emmanuellepurdon@mac.com.

ii) Organize the event at your convenience. You may want to distribute information about Linda and her case and/or encourage people to discuss the death penalty in general.

iii) Send us the video of your group. You can upload material here (simply follow the link and click on the upwards uploading arrow).

If you live in London we can arrange a filming session of Amazing Grace in your local community during September 2010. Please contact Emmanuelle Purdon for further details emmanuellepurdon@mac.com