Susanna Reid meets Brit Grandma on death row who's insisted she's innocent for 20 years

22.03.2022 - 16:27 / ok.co.uk

In May 16th 2001 Joana Rodriguez, 25, was just settling into life with a newborn.The beautiful young mum had given birth four days ago, to a son called Ray. Yet that night, three men came into her home, beat up her partner and kidnapped her and her newborn son. Later that day her lifeless body was found in the trunk of a car.

Miraculously her son was still alive. In a real life documentary, Susanna Reid travels to Texas to talk to the British woman on death row who was charged with the crime, former teacher Linda Carty. “I can look you fully in the eye and say I had nothing to do with the crime,” a tearful Linda tells Susanna.

Get exclusive celebrity stories and fabulous photoshoots straight to your inbox with OK!'s daily newsletter. Yet prosecutors argued that she tricked local men into kidnapping the young mum who she murdered because she wanted to steal her baby. Police found baby items in her car, the male attackers turned against her, and she’d told people in the days leading up to the gruesome crime that she would soon become a mum.

But twenty years on, Linda continues to plead her innocence from jail. She’s supported by her daughter Joelle, who visits with her grandchildren, and who has long campaigned for her release. Joelle will not attend the execution if they set a date, saying: “Nobody wants to watch their parents die.” And a group of British and American human rights lawyers have been looking into her case since 2003.

Hugh Southey QC, a barrister and friend of Linda says that the fact that she’s British could help her with getting an appeal. Susanna looks at both sides of the case, and asks Linda some tough questions. But we also hear how Carty always said she simply lent the local men her car, and didn't