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UPDATE 6:49 P.M. EST

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Dallas County prosecutors say they aren’t appealing a state judge’s decision to halt the scheduled Tuesday evening execution of a Texas woman.

Kimberly McCarthy, 51, would have been the first woman put to death in the U.S. since 2010.

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Convicted Texas murderer Kimberly McCarthy (pictured) will be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, making her the first woman in the United States to be sentenced to death in more than two years, reports the Daily Mail.

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McCarthy was convicted of the 1997 vicious beating and fatal stabbing of her 71-year-old neighbor, retired college professor Dorothy Booth.

According to police investigators, the 51-year-old former nursing attendant, who was addicted to crack cocaine, was also tied to two other similar heinous slayings of two elderly women that had occurred a decade earlier.

Watch McCarthy’s case here:

The execution of women in this country is a rare occurrence. Only 12 females thus far have been executed during the last 36-year period since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court. As far as male executions during the same time frame, there have been a total of 1,300 that have taken place.

Teresa Lewis was the last female to be executed in this country, and the event took place in Virginia on September 23, 2010. Lewis had been the only woman in Virginia on death row. Lewis was killed by lethal injection, after she was convicted for using money and sex to arrange for the murders of her husband and step-son back in October 2002.

Watch Lewis’ last hours here:

McCarthy will be the fourth woman to be put to death in the state of Texas, which is considered to have the highest rate of executions in the country. There are currently nine other women with death penalties in the state but none have actual execution dates.

The legal team who represented McCarthy during her trials made a final plea for a 30-day reprieve to Texas Governor Rick Perry on Monday, but their request fell on deaf ears. The attorneys also sought the assistance of the Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins to withdraw or modify McCarthy’s execution date based on racial grounds since she was tried by 11 white jury members, but their request was dead on arrival.

The U.S. Supreme Court would not review McCarthy’s case and the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles denied a request for clemency last Friday.

McCarthy’s lawyers contend that their client is harmless and that drugs were solely to blame for her violent episodes.

Ironically, McCarthy was once married to Aaron Michaels, the founder of the New Black Panther Party.  Michaels, who had been separated from McCarthy before Booth’s murder, testified on his ex’s behalf at her trial.

McCarthy is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. CT.

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