Texas Parole Board Rejects Clemency Plea for Woman on Death Row

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBLA9PLJDE.html

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A condemned female inmate lost before the parole board and a federal court Monday as her lawyers tried to stop her scheduled execution.

Frances Newton, 40, faces lethal injection Wednesday evening for the slayings of her husband and two children at their Houston apartment 18 years ago.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a 7-0 vote, refused to recommend to the governor that her death sentence be commuted to life in prison.

The vote came several hours after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stop the punishment, a decision that sent her lawyers to the U.S. Supreme Court.

[Erika]

1. Texas refuses to listen to the pleas of the pope & the world

Killing appears to be a macho thing with them. Even if its women or the mentally disabled.

[countmyvote4real]

2. They loves to play God down there and everywhere.

Death and punishment for the living and yet unperceived rights and freedoms for unborn cells. (It's not like they can talk yet or be whistle-blowers at that stage.) They can proclaim "creationism" in the name of their "god" and yet deny that their own environment is being destroyed by their own denial. Make that their SUV. Just what is it that they want to protect?

Cue the SNL Couch Lady. You're on.

[sue_66]

3. Repukes

and the "CULTURE OF LIFE"

[202 456]

4. Why did she kill her two kids?

[Der Blaue Engel]

6. It's in the article

"Newton has denied any role in the killings of her husband, Adrian, and their children, Alton, 7, and Farrah, 21 months. She says a drug dealer she knew only as Charlie may have been responsible.

Prosecutors say Newton killed her husband and children to claim $100,000 in insurance money."

What is that disturbing image in your signature?

[202 456]

7. Re: What is that disturbing image in your signature?

That is a screen capture from the TV show COPS, the officer (who was never identified in the episode :shrug: ) was conducting a drug surveillance operation when they decided to stop a man and woman, when the female got out of the vehicle he started choking her and claimed that she swallowed drugs although in the video you can hear the other officer (Jayson Snyder) say "its in her hand". I can upload the video by tomorrow if you want to see this episode.

[ladylibertee]

8. Wow.....Where is CSI when you need them?

[Megahurtz]

15. Whoa, what if she really DIDN'T do it?

That would be horrible.;(

[marshall]

10. Was she abused?

Women usually kill their husbands because they are being abused by them. Has anyone looked into this?

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[marshall]

14. Postpartum psychosis?

The younger child was under a year. Maybe she hadn't been getting the help and treatment she needed.

[Erika]

5. The Pope continually has asked Texans & Bush to stop

murder by the state. They refuse.

[NNN0LHI]

9. When will the pope deny communion for those involved in this?

Thats usually what happens to Dem's who do something the church doesn't approve of.

Don

[reprobate]

12. Saw a TV show about this. Definate doubt about her guilt. This is the ..

...kind of case that will make the death penalty a thing of the past, at least I hope so. It'll take time, and more will die at the hands of the mobs (justice system) meanwhile, but it will come eventually.

The big mistake americans make is thinking that the 'justice system' has anything to do with justice. It has to do with one lawyer winning over the other lawyer. And the lawyer for the state usually has vast resources to prove his case, while the lawyer for the defence has extremely limited resources. Justice in this nation, in particular capital cases, is a complete travesty.

We should all be ashamed.

Do we have any barristers from GB on the board? I've always thought that the way it works over there (at least the way it worked many years ago when I was there)is much better than our system. There, the barristers (the ones who actually argue the case in court) for each side are chosen from the same pool of qualified attorneys, and paid by the state. The responsibilities of the barrister are separate from those of the solicitor, who prepares the case. At least that's my understanding of it. Always seemed a much more fair way of doing things than here.

[CHIMO]

13. From Death Row: Texas Set to Execute First African-American Woman Since Ci

From Death Row: Texas Set to Execute First African-American Woman Since Civil War

FRANCES NEWTON: There are so many things that I don’t know and I don't have answers to, but there are some things that I do know, and that I know that if the jury knew that they would have come to a different decision. The issue with the ballistics and the gun, they would have found out that the shell casings found there didn't match the weapon that they're saying is the murder weapon. That still hasn't been brought up in any of the court hearings, you know, and that's a major -- that's something I didn't know, but that one of the attorneys working on the case now told me about, that -- and those are like fingerprints. It's something that wasn't brought up in trial, you know, and I think that the jury should be able -- should have been able to hear that.

Mock has already said he was tired, he didn't want to take the case. So he didn't even look -- I don't even think he looked at the police report, you know. One of my neighbors said they heard gunshots at 7:30. Why weren't they brought to testify in trial? I just saw that in the clemency report, you know? I never knew that. That person should have been brought to trial to testify. That was something the defense was supposed to do and never did.

What I know is that Sergeant Freeze told my father when he came to get me from my parents' house that there were two guns in the state's possession, and the gun that I had wasn't the murder weapon. He told my father I would be back for that reason. Ron Mock, when we first – when I was first arrested and began going to court, he told us that there were two guns in the state's evidence and the gun that I had wasn't the murder weapon. As far as the ballistics tests coming back, saying that the gun in the state's evidence is the murder weapon, I don't know. You know, it may be, but what I know is that the gun I had the night that I -- the day that I left my apartment is not the murder weapon.

You know, I had heard Adrian and his brother talking earlier that day, and they had mentioned something about some trouble, and Adrian had told me he had -- was quit using drugs. And so I looked in the cabinet, and I was just trying to confirm that he was telling me the truth about the drugs. And so, I looked in the cabinet where he normally kept drugs, and there wasn’t any in there, but there was this gun there, and it was unfamiliar to me. And so, hearing his conversation earlier with his brother, Sterling, I took it.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/25/1342238&mode=thread&tid=25