Kimberly McCarthy is set to be the first woman executed in the U.S. in three years and the 500th execution in Texas on Wednesday.
Reuters reports that the 52-year-old African American woman was convicted of killing her neighbor, Dorothy Booth, 71, in Lancaster, Texas in 1997. She stabbed Booth to death and cut off her ring finger. Her execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. local time at the Huntsville state prison.
Texas has executed far more prisoners than any of the other states that still allow the death penalty since it was reinstated in 1976. According to The Associated Press, there are 36 states that still have the death penalty.
McCarthy will be the first woman executed in the U.S. since September 2010. She is linked to two other murders and had her execution delayed twice in 2013 already. Attorney Maurie Levin is trying to halt the execution again, arguing that Dallas County had barred nonwhites from being on the jury.
Texas has sentenced almost 40 percent of the 1,300 prisoners to death since 1976. The state still has 282 prisoners on death row, but the government has given juries more options and the rate of executions in the state has slowed. Still, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll from last year said that only 21 percent of Texans wanted to end the death penalty, notes the AP.