The execution of 51-year-old Kimberly McCarthy is scheduled to take place on Tuesday evening, and if the sentence is carried out, will be the first female since September of 2010 to be put to death.

McCarthy was convicted of killing her neighbor, 71-year-old Dorothy Booth on July21, 1997 in Lancaster, Texas. According to court documents, McCarthy went to her neighbor’s house under the pretense of borrrowing a cup of sugar. Once inside, McCarthy stabbed the elderly woman five times. During the incident, prosecutors pointed out that the woman was mortaly wounded but still alive, when McCarthy cut off the woman’s finger to steal her diamond ring. She would later pawn the item of jewelry at a pawn shop. After cutting off her finger McCarthy continued to attack the old woman until she finally killed her.

Investigators found her name on the pawn shop receipt for the ring. The prosecutors related how McCarthy stole Booth’s Mercedes and drove to Dallas and went to a pawn shop then continued on to a Crack dealer’s house to buy cocaine with the $200 she received for the ring. Prosecutors also admitted as evidence the butcher knife found in McCarthy’s home that still had Booth’s DNA on it.

At her trial, McCarthy put the blame for the killing on two crack dealers that she identified as “Kilo” and “JC.” it was never determined if the two people ever existed.

McCarthy was found guilty of the crime in 1998 in Dallas. But, in 2001, her conviction was overturned because her lawyer, that she had requested, was not present at the time of her questioning by police. She would go to trial a second time in 2002 and she would be convicted of the crime again, and was once again sentenced to death. This time, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed with the verdict.

It would be revealed in the punishment phase of the former nursing home therapist’s trial, that she was also believed responsible for the deaths of two other elderly women a decade earlier. After hearing of the evidence put forth of her involvement in the deaths of the other two women, one who died by being bludgeoned with a meat tenderizer, and one who died after being beaten with a claw hammer, the jurors decided McCarthy should die.

McCarthy exhausted her appeals. The Supreme Court decided three weeks ago not to review her case and the Texas Board of Parole and Pardons turned down her request for clemency.

It is extremely rare for a woman to be executed in Texas. Since the state resumed executions in 1982 there have been only three prior executions of females out of a total of the 492 people put to death since that date. 43 of those people were executed in 2012.

McCarthy is the former wife of the New Black Panther founder, Aaron Michaels.