Gran is only Brit on US death row after horrifying sinister murder of new mum

A British grandmother has been languishing on death row in the state of Texas in the US for the last two decades years after being convicted of killing a young mother.

Linda Carty, a native of St. Kitts and Nevis - which was a British territory when she was born - was found guilty of the murder of her neighbour Joana Rodriguez.

Carty, 66, was ruled to have plotted the abduction of the victim's new-born son with three men in May, 2001. New mum Joana, 25, was kidnapped from her Houston apartment along with her four-day-old-son before she was suffocated to death.

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The newborn baby was found unharmed in a vehicle that same day — but his mother was found dead with duct tape over her mouth and a plastic bag around her head. She was discovered in the boot of a car Carty was leasing at the time.

The death row inmate appeared on 'British Grandma On Death Row' with Susanna Reid, which aired on ITV. Carty continues to maintain her innocence as the prospect of lethal injection looms.

She claims she was convicted largely on the word of her co-accused — Gerald Anderson, Chris Robinson and Carlos Williams were charged as Carty's accomplices and received long prison terms. But Carty was the one suspect who was sentenced to death.

When asked by Susanna: "If you weren't the one responsible, how did [it] happen?"

A tearful Carty replied: "I don't know for sure because I wasn't there. But I can truthfully say, and I can truthfully look you in the eye, and tell you that I had nothing to do with this crime."

The British grandmother was sentenced to death by lethal injection on February 21, 2002.

Carty previously told Sky News from behind bars in Huntsville Prison back in 2012 she was, '110 percent innocent'. She insisted in the interview that she felt for the victim's family but maintained that she was framed for the crime.

The former schoolteacher said: 'She's somebody's child too and she's somebody's daughter. So for me it's not only a healing process for me but to show the families that the person you have been hating all these years and that you thought because the state of Texas told you this is who did it, did not commit this crime.'

Carty is currently being held on death row at the Mountain View Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Gatesville. She does not yet have an execution date.

The death penalty has long been outlawed in the UK. The last British woman to be executed was Ruth Ellis in 1955 who was hanged for shooting her lover outside North London pub.