Our Newshawk writes: This article if from the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. The
Dallas Morning News had a similar article, but for some reason, it did not
make their online edition. Go ahead and respond to the DMN as if this was
the article in their paper.

Dallas Morning News http://www.dallasnews.com letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com

WOMAN'S KIN ASK JURY TO FORGO DEATH SENTENCE

DALLAS -- Kimberly LaGayle McCarthy was a good mother but so addicted to
crack cocaine that she disappeared from home for days at a time to feed her
drug compulsion, said her husband, Aaron McCarthy.

His testimony came yesterday during the punishment phase of the capital
murder trial of Kimberly McCarthy. She was convicted by a jury on Tuesday
for the 1997 slaying of retired Lancaster psychologist Dorothy Booth, 71,
during a robbery that prosecutors said was planned to help Kimberly
McCarthy, 37, pay for crack.

Today, the juryis expected to begin deciding McCarthy's sentence -- either
life in prison or death by lethal injection. A death sentence would make
McCarthy the second Dallas County woman sent to Death Row in the past two
years. In 1997, Rowlett homemaker Darlie Routier was sentenced to die for
stabbing one of her young sons to death.

Relatives testified yesterday that McCarthy is not a violent woman and that
she was at times a good wife and mother.

But prosecutors introduced evidence that Kimberly McCarthy has been charged
with capital murder in the 1988 deaths of two elderly Dallas women.

Aaron McCarthy testified yesterday that he often tracked down his wife in
southeast Dallas, finding her with drug dealers in crack houses, he said.

"I've spent 12, 13, 14 hours a day in the middle of winter or the heat of
summer, find her, and put her in the back seat or the trunk of the car and
take her home," McCarthy said.

Aaron McCarthy, founder of the New Black Panthers, is a producer at radio
station KKDA/730 AM and is also known by the on-air name Aaron Michaels.

Aaron and Kimberly McCarthy had been separated for some time before Booth's
slaying.

Prosecutor Greg Davis cross-examined the defense witnesses to support the
state's argument for a death sentence, often asking them if they had seen
any indication that she had "butchered" three elderly women.

Aaron McCarthy said he tried to help his wife kick her drug habit. When she
was not using cocaine, she was devoted to their 5-year-old son and tried to
be a good wife and homemaker, he said.

McCarthy's mother, Tredis Griffin, said her daughter is a gentle person who
would never have carried out the attack of which she was convicted. Booth
was stabbed five times, and her left ring finger was severed while she was
still alive, prosecutors said.

"I remember once when she was in college, she had an assignment to dissect
a cat," Griffin said. "She couldn't do it."

Bill Teeter, (972) 263-4448 Send your comments to bteeter@star-telegram.com

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski