Lawyers for Kimberly McCarthy, who is to be exe­cut­ed on January 29, have peti­tioned Texas Governor Rick Perry for a 30-day reprieve because of evi­dence of racial bias in the coun­ty in which she was tried. The District Attorney for Dallas County, Craig Watkins, has already called for pas­sage of a Racial Justice Act to address the bias he has found. Attorneys for McCarthy cit­ed sev­er­al stud­ies point­ing to racial dis­par­i­ty in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty: Dallas County is about 22% black, yet 42% of those exe­cut­ed or await­ing exe­cu­tion from the County are black. Ms. McCarthy is black and her vic­tim was white, like 68% of the vic­tims in the County’s cas­es. Her attor­neys wrote, ​“These sta­tis­tics and their import are reflect­ed in the case of Kimberly McCarthy, an African-American woman, who was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of an elder­ly white woman.” Evidence also exists of bias in jury selec­tion, both his­tor­i­cal­ly and in her case: ​“Of the thir­teen jurors seat­ed [in McCarthy’s case], all were white except one.” Although the gov­er­nor can­not grant clemen­cy to McCarthy because the Pardons Board vot­ed against her, he can issue a 30-day reprieve for fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion. [UPDATE: State District Judge Larry Mitchell stayed McCarthy’s exe­cu­tion. Her exe­cu­tion was ini­tial­ly resched­uled for April 3, 2013 and she was exe­cut­ed on June26, 2013.]

(Attorneys for McCarthy, Letter to Governor Perry, January 28, 2013). See Race. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Race.

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