The execution of women is rare in the United States with only 12 female inmates put to death since capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

The last woman executed was Teresa Lewis in Virginia on Sept. 23, 2010, the information center said.

McCarthy, 51, was convicted of entering the Lancaster, Texas home of her 71-year-old neighbor, Dorothy Booth, on July 21, 1997, under the pretense of borrowing some sugar. She then stabbed Booth five times, according to the Texas attorney general's summary of the case.

She also cut off Booth's left ring finger in order to take her diamond ring, which she later pawned.

McCarthy also was believed to be responsible for the murders of two other elderly women, one using a meat tenderizer as a weapon and another using a claw hammer, according to the Attorney General's summary.

McCarthy was found guilty in 1998 by a Dallas County jury of murdering Booth and sentenced to death. Her conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2001 because no attorney was present when she was questioned after the crime even though she had requested a lawyer, court documents show. She was tried a second time in 2002, was again found guilty by a Dallas County jury, and again sentenced to death.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2004 agreed with the second conviction.

McCarthy would be the second person executed in the United States so far this year. Forty-three inmates were put to death in 2012.