Post by CCADP on Aug 27, 2005 21:08:16 GMT -5
Lawyers fight execution of black woman in Texas
By: Jeff Franks
Sat Aug 27, 2005 4:27 AM ET
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.
The case is the latest to spark protests about capital punishment in the state, which leads the nation in executions, and raise questions about the quality of Texas justice.
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.
"It's the perfect storm, legally speaking," said defense attorney David Dow of the Texas Innocence Network and the University of Houston Law Center.
There are enough questions about the case that Texas Gov. Rick Perry granted a rare reprieve two hours before Newton was set to die last December so more investigation could be done.
Newton's lawyers have filed a request for clemency to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and asked the courts to stop the execution.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals turned down the motion for a stay on Wednesday, but a similar request is pending in a lower court and other legal maneuvers were being planned.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Amnesty International have appealed for Newton to be spared. Her supporters have held protests in Houston and plan another on Saturday at the Texas Capitol in Austin.
'WRONGLY ACCUSED, WRONGLY CONVICTED'
"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.
Only two women, both white, are known to have been executed in Texas since the Civil War -- Karla Faye Tucker in a controversial case in 1998 and Betty Beets in 2000.
Executions were once performed by county governments, but the state of Texas took over the task in 1923 and has never put a black woman to death, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.
Since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifted a four-year national ban on capital punishment in 1976, Texas has carried out 348 executions, the highest number of any state.
At her trial, prosecutors said Newton bought life insurance for her family, then shot and killed husband Adrian, 23, and son Alton, 7 and daughter Farrah, 21 months, in their Houston apartment so she could collect the money.
They said ballistics tests matched a gun she hid under a house and gun powder residue was found on her skirt.
Newton's attorneys questioned whether the gun tested by police was the murder weapon and disputed the validity of the gunpowder tests. They charged that police found a second weapon in the Newtons' apartment that may have been used in the shootings, but prosecutors did not disclose it.
Prosecutors said a second round of ballistics tests confirmed the hidden gun was the murder weapon.
Newton's lawyers have also blamed her court-appointed attorney for her conviction, saying he conducted no investigation, had little contact with her and had not subpoenaed any witnesses for the defense by the time her trial began.
By: Jeff Franks
Sat Aug 27, 2005 4:27 AM ET
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.
The case is the latest to spark protests about capital punishment in the state, which leads the nation in executions, and raise questions about the quality of Texas justice.
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.
"It's the perfect storm, legally speaking," said defense attorney David Dow of the Texas Innocence Network and the University of Houston Law Center.
There are enough questions about the case that Texas Gov. Rick Perry granted a rare reprieve two hours before Newton was set to die last December so more investigation could be done.
Newton's lawyers have filed a request for clemency to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and asked the courts to stop the execution.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals turned down the motion for a stay on Wednesday, but a similar request is pending in a lower court and other legal maneuvers were being planned.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Amnesty International have appealed for Newton to be spared. Her supporters have held protests in Houston and plan another on Saturday at the Texas Capitol in Austin.
'WRONGLY ACCUSED, WRONGLY CONVICTED'
"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.
Only two women, both white, are known to have been executed in Texas since the Civil War -- Karla Faye Tucker in a controversial case in 1998 and Betty Beets in 2000.
Executions were once performed by county governments, but the state of Texas took over the task in 1923 and has never put a black woman to death, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.
Since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifted a four-year national ban on capital punishment in 1976, Texas has carried out 348 executions, the highest number of any state.
At her trial, prosecutors said Newton bought life insurance for her family, then shot and killed husband Adrian, 23, and son Alton, 7 and daughter Farrah, 21 months, in their Houston apartment so she could collect the money.
They said ballistics tests matched a gun she hid under a house and gun powder residue was found on her skirt.
Newton's attorneys questioned whether the gun tested by police was the murder weapon and disputed the validity of the gunpowder tests. They charged that police found a second weapon in the Newtons' apartment that may have been used in the shootings, but prosecutors did not disclose it.
Prosecutors said a second round of ballistics tests confirmed the hidden gun was the murder weapon.
Newton's lawyers have also blamed her court-appointed attorney for her conviction, saying he conducted no investigation, had little contact with her and had not subpoenaed any witnesses for the defense by the time her trial began.