Texas to execute a black woman for 1st time

[Judi Lynn]

Texas to execute a black woman for 1st time
By Michael Graczyk / Associated Press
November 26, 2004


GATESVILLE - Alton was 7. Farrah was almost 2.

The first letters of their names were meant to reflect the initials of their dad and mom - A and F, Adrian and Frances.

The last time Frances Newton saw her husband and children was more than 17 years ago, the evening of April 7, 1987, five days before her 22nd birthday. She'd run a few errands and was with a cousin as she returned to her Harris County apartment.

Adrian, Alton and Farrah were dead in the home. Two weeks later, Newton was arrested and charged with killing her family. Convicted, she's scheduled to become the first black woman executed in Texas, on Monday. In a state that annually leads the nation in executions, Newton will become the fourth woman executed in Texas since executions resumed in 1976, the 11th nationally. But Newton, 39, says she didn't murder her family. She believes the real killer is a drug dealer named ''Charlie'' who was upset with her husband for not repaying a $500 debt.
(snip)

Newton's case provides fodder for deathpenalty opponents questioning the competence of legal help, particularly for the poor. Newton's court-appointed lead trial attorney was Ronald G. Mock, notorious for having his clients, perhaps as many as a dozen, wind up on death row.
(snip)

http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_state/article/0,1874,ABIL_7974_3355295,00.html

(Free registration is required)

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There's a lot available in a google search. Amnesty Internation and the ACLU both are asking to appeal this case.

Texas Residents: Urge Governor Perry to Stop the Execution of Frances Newton

Frances Newton is scheduled to be executed on December 1st even though she has had no real opportunity to establish her innocence and was not properly defended at her trial. She will die unless Governor Perry issues a reprieve.

Newton did not receive adequate representation at her trial. Her attorney, Ron Mock, inadequately represented her at trial, and when she tried to hire new counsel, the judge denied the request for a continuance making it impossible for her new counsel to represent her at trial. Mock had previously been accused of shoddy work and 16 of his clients have ended up on death row. Furthermore, at a September 1988 pre-trial hearing, Newton testified “Mr. Mock never sat down with me and did not go over the case in depth at all.” The Houston Chronicle reported “ pre-trial preparation was minimal, he filed no motions, failed to submit a subpoena list when the trial started and interviewed none of the witnesses.”
(snip)

The evidence used to convict Frances Newton is coming under attack as being unreliable. The scientific premise underlying the ballistics expert’s testimony has frequently proven to be erroneous. Furthermore, the crime lab used to process the trial’s forensic evidence has been thoroughly discredited. The problems at the laboratory are so severe that prominent Texans – including a police chief and a judge – have called for a moratorium on executions on cases from Harris County. This would include Newton’s case.

Newton did not receive adequate representation at her trial.
Attorney Ron Mock inadequately represented Newton at trial, but the judge refused her request that counsel of her choice replace him. According to the Houston Chronicle, “ pre-trial preparation was minimal, he filed no motions, failed to submit a subpoena list when the trial started and interviewed none of the witnesses.”
(snip/...)

http://www.aclu.org/DeathPenalty/DeathPenalty.cfm?ID=17061&c=17

[Swamp Rat]

1. Guilty or not... poor woman.

:cry:

[izzie]

3. I always think keeping some one alive to recall what they did better.

I am not sure why this always seems like an easy way out if you do these things. One has to live with the lose of who was killed for your whole life and in death these people need not think about it. Even her family knows she has paid and it is only the other family that carry it forever. Well I did bad in Logic 101

[NEOBuckeye]

4. I'll say. She's in Texas.

[BikeWriter]

2. This story has some serious circumstantial evidence...

With no eyewitnesses and no confession, prosecutors built a circumstantial case.

Investigators say the murder weapon was a .25-caliber automatic pistol they found in a blue bag in an abandoned house that belonged to Mrs. Newton's parents. The blue dress Newton wore that night was found to have possible gunpowder residue on it.

Three weeks before the deaths, she had taken out 50-thousand-dollar life insurance policies on herself, her husband and her daughter -- with herself as beneficiary. A day before her arrest, she applied for the death benefits. Prosecutors say the insurance money was her motive.

<http://www.team4news.com/Global/story.asp?S=2614098>

[fortyfeetunder]

5. When it comes to administering Texas death penalty

(sarcasm) Texas makes no mistakes! (/sarcasm)

edited to show sarcasm

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Is there an update?

[Demonaut]

7. Equal Opportunity at last in Texas

<<heavy sarcasm>>