Fight to stop Texas woman's execution

[emad]

Richard Luscombe in Miami
Friday August 26, 2005
The Guardian


Texas is preparing to execute the first black woman in the state since the American civil war - drawing protests from her supporters and opponents of the US death penalty.

Frances Newton, 40, was convicted of murdering her husband and two children in 1987 for a $100,000 (£55,000) insurance payout. Her campaigners say she is innocent, but supporters of capital punishment point out that she has lost several appeals.

If she is given a lethal injection next month as planned, she will be the first African-American woman to be executed in Texas since the civil war ended in 1865, and only the second in the country since capital punishment resumed in 1977.


"What this will do is make it easier to execute more innocent women," said Gloria Rubac, a Houston-based activist for the abolition of the death penalty. "If they murder her, they will be able to murder anybody who is innocent."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1556667,00.html

[Kelvin Mace]

1. Teh evidence of this woman's guilt

comes from the Houston PD Crime Lab.

You can review the quality of the lab here:

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/03/crimelab/

[ninkasi]

11. I was born in Houston, and lived there the first 60 years of my life

The crime was the quality of the lab itself. The quality was a disgrace. If that's where the evidence of her guilt came from, then it's as though she's been in prison all these years without a trial.

[saigon68]

12. the Houston PD Crime Lab

A leak at HPD's lab
A wastebasket sits in place to catch water from a leaky ceiling at the Houston Police Department's crime lab. An employee of the lab took this picture in 2002, one in a series of photographs to record leaks that some critics say may have jeopardized evidence.

[lostnfound]

13. Worse than the leaks was the pencil-whipping.

Easier to label evidence as convincing than to actually test it.

[saigon68]

14. Its a good thing we are fighting for "FREEDOM" in Iraq-Nam

Some "FREEDOM we have </SARCASM>

[Gregorian]

2. Why does it take 17 YEARS!?

What the hell is wrong with justice in America?

Her gun was never fired. She had no powder burns. Blood stains everywhere but not a trace on her. The cops arrived after 20 minutes, so how in the hell could she have erased evidence. Claims about life insurance were totally bogus, and proven to be bogus.

But someone had to go to jail. Is that it? She had more mellanine. Was that it?


Now, all I can imagine is this scenerio- Your family has been murdered in front of you, and then you are put through hell and slammed in jail. Assuming she's innocent, that's worse than any nightmare.

[genieroze]

19. She's black therefore she's guilty. /sarcasm

[Judi Lynn]

3. Would you care to sign a request for a reprieve from Gov. Perry

in order to investigate? Not that it will help, but you just never know, hopefully:

http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=239

[salib]

4. Done.

[theHandpuppet]

15. Done and kicked!

Let's keep this one kicked today.

[coffeenap]

17. done and kick

[NNN0LHI]

5. Lawyers fight execution of black woman in Texas

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050826/ts_nm/execution_texas_dc;_ylt=A0SOwkgfsQ9DZdgATSTP47oF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4b3FrcXQ0BHNlYwMxNjkz

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Attorneys are fighting a last-ditch battle to stop the execution of Frances Newton, who is set to receive a lethal injection on September 14 and become the first black woman put to death by the state of Texas. snip

Newton, 40, was convicted of murdering her husband and two children on April 7, 1987, to collect $100,000 in insurance. She blamed the killings on an unknown drug dealer. She has been on death row for 17 years.

Her lawyers and anti-death penalty groups say she had an incompetent attorney in her 1988 trial and was the victim of questionable forensics work, sloppy investigation and possible prosecutorial misconduct. snip

"For a long time I believed in the death penalty. But now I know that the system can't be trusted to be right. I've been wrongly accused, wrongly convicted," Newton told the Houston Chronicle in an interview.

[hiley]

6. look at this link, Frances is innocent

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4458299
Her story was on DemocracyNow! yesterday, links on thread.

[hiley]

7. ...

[funflower]

8. Why kill the kids for insurance money? Were they insured for a lot?

Seems a surprising motive to me. Killing kids along with parents is a lot more like the behavior of organized crime types or general lunatics. Mothers who kill their children are usually mentally ill or motivated by something more than money.

[Eloriel]

9. NOMINATED -

This breaks my heart. I hope that some of you will read the thread where you can try to help her.

[brentspeak]

10. I don't have knowledge of her case

and she could be guilty as sin, for all I know.

But this is Texas we're talking about; the issue of guilt or innocence in capital murder cases has never dissuaded the state from proceeding with executions, let alone with handing out life sentences. (See the documentary, "The Thin Blue Line".)

[theHandpuppet]

16. Kicking

Please sign the petition to Gov. Perry!

[fortyfeetunder]

18. Where's the Innocence Project standing on this one?

The group where Ken Starr was enlisted to help a previously condemned inmate to gain freedom...this woman needs this group...