HispanicBusiness

The first woman set to die by lethal injection in the United States in two years awaited execution Tuesday in Texas for killing her neighbor.

If her execution takes place as scheduled, the Death Penalty Information Center said, Kimberly McCarthy will be the 13th woman to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, WFAA-TV, Dallas, reported.

The execution is scheduled at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville.

McCarthy was convicted of killing her neighbor, Dorothy Booth, 71, July 21, 1997, by beating Booth with a candelabra then cutting off the woman's finger to steal her wedding ring.

After McCarthy was arrested for Booth's murder, Dallas police brought forward two other cases from 1988 in which women also were stabbed and robbed. Law enforcement officials linked McCarthy to those slayings as well, WFAA said.

McCarthy was convicted of Booth's murder in 1998. Her conviction was overturned in 2001, but a year later she was again convicted and sentenced to die for Booth's murder. The conviction and sentence stood as the case moved through the appeals process.