Dallas Morning News

TEXAS---female death sentence overturned

Appeals court overturns woman's death verdict, orders new trial

The state's highest criminal appeals court Wednesday overturned the death sentence of a Dallas County woman convicted of killing an elderly neighbor in a robbery.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the capital murder case of Kimberly McCarthy of Lancaster sent back to its original court for a new trial.

 McCarthy was convicted of the July 1997 stabbing and bludgeoning death of her neighbor, 71-year-old Dorothy Booth, a retired college professor. Police alleged the motive was robbery.

 The appeals court ruled that after McCarthy invoked her right to speak with an attorney following her arrest, a Dallas police officer questioned her, gathering information that was used at trial.

 The Lancaster police officers who arrested McCarthy stopped the questioning once she said she wanted to speak with a lawyer.

 But a Dallas police officer who knew McCarthy's husband later interrogated her without an attorney present, violating her rights, the court ruled.

 "Although we are slow to overturn the verdict of a jury, when fundamental constitutional protections are violated, however innocently, we must uphold the integrity of that law," the court wrote.

 6 of the 9 justices joined in the decision. 2 dissented, and 1 did not participate in the ruling.

 McCarthy is 1 of 7 women housed on Texas' death row.