Actors support death row Briton

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Press Association

Actors support death row Briton
(UKPA) – 4 hours ago

Film stars Colin Firth and Julie Christie have backed a campaign to save the life of a British grandmother on death row in the US. The actors joined a number of public figures and celebrities including authors Philip Pullman, Zadie Smith and Martina Cole to write a letter to the Sunday Times calling for public support for Linda Carty.

It comes two days after Carty, 51, lodged a last-ditch appeal with the US Supreme Court. She was convicted in 2002 over the abduction and murder of a 25-year-old woman after a trial which campaigners say was "catastrophically flawed".

A video plea on behalf of Carty will be submitted to the Supreme Court alongside the appeal from her legal team and a document from the British Government outlining its concerns over her sentence. If it fails, Carty could be executed within months. Backing Reprieve's Save Linda Carty campaign, the letter said: "Now is the time to get very worried about Linda - and to support the government's Supreme Court appeal on her behalf.

"Linda would not be on death row if she had been able to afford a decent defence lawyer. The government has told the Supreme Court that Texas's failure to notify it of her arrest prevented Linda from receiving desperately needed legal assistant from the British consulate - that would probably have saved her life."

The letter warned the Supreme Court reopened only a "tiny number" of cases, prompting fears there was a "real possibility that Linda will die without her case ever having been properly heard".


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