Frances Newton being executed NOW.

[JohnLocke]

6 p.m. CDT.

An innocent person is being legally killed by the state.

[AX10]

1. details? details?

Now, Now, Now.....

[helderheid]

2. here

http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=697

[WilliamPitt]

4. That tells the story, but how is she innocent?

I am against the DP in any event. Just curious how she is innocent.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Here you go.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-09-09/pols_feature3.html

[walldude]

8. There is a web page devoted to this.

I believe it's www.freefrancis.org While it doesn't prove her total innocence it does raise enough questions that the execution should have been stopped.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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

[helderheid]

6. here are several

http://www.freefrances.org/

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/012322.html

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-09-09/pols_feature3.html

[Ioo]

7. Now you can just me mad like the rest of us...

She is dead...

[helderheid]

10. heartbreaking

[Xithras]

11. There's no evidence that she's innocent, but the evidence of guilt is thin

Basically, they convicted her because she admitted dropping a gun off at her parents abandoned home. Her husband apparently ran with some bad people, and she was afraid of a shooting. Officially, the ballistics from that gun matched the bullets recovered from her families bodies, meaning that her gun killed the family.

The problem is that there's a nagging accusation that there were actually TWO guns recovered, and that the gun in police evidence isn't the same gun she placed in the home. It may be impossible to prove one way or the other, but nobody's even investigated it.

[FreedomAngel82]

20. This is why I'm against the death penalty

Cases like this where any sort of evidance is very thin. So sad. :(

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. Legalized state murder puts it into the collective consciousness that

murder is ok. We a nation founded in violence is the most violent industrial country in this world. Perhaps if we stop with these acts, our Karma can be turned around.

Frances, blessings to you whereever you are.

[boston bean]

12. this is really sick. and not one news report. may god bless her soul.

[melody]

13. she's in a place with more justice than this one...murdered by GWB

Yet another notch on his gun.

[patdem]

24. melody..that is if you belive in heaven and hell..or if you just become

worm food...I am of the worm food believer. So she is NOT in a better place, unless you prefer worms to humans? Just saying.

[melody]

29. I'm an agnostic - I don't believe in anything, worm food or not

I don't know.

Whichever, there is no alternative at this point. And worm food is a better place than Death Row in many respects.

[bobbieinok]

14. what I got from an earlier post.....she had INCOMPETANT lawyer

who did nothing.....

....common theme in TX murder cases against blacks

[brettdale]

15. Where is Mel Gibson?

Where is Faux?

Where are all the people with crosses?

[Horse with no Name]

16. She is black.

They only are used for the white folk.

[mvd]

17. I'm sorry we couldn't do anything

I applaud DUers for their efforts. I will light a candle, as I believe an innocent person was executed today. This evidence doesn't even meet the criteria for reasonable doubt. The death penalty is wrong, and look at the company the U.S. is in around the world. :-(

[ET Awful]

18. RIP Frances

I'm sorry we couldn't stop it. :cry:

[Pithlet]

19. You know

There are people right now going through the multiple threads about this and pointing out that we don't know for sure that's she's innocent. It so completely misses the point. None of us know for a fact that she was innocent. But, when was that the standard to execute someone? At the very least, if you're going to insist that your vengeful blood lust be satisfied by the state, I'd think you'd want a fairly air tight case. And in the case of Frances Newton I think it's pretty clear it was not.

I'm sorry. I'm just not feeling all that warm and fuzzy towards the Pro DP crowd right now. Knowing that people are executed under the flimziest of pretexts and continue to cling to that position anyway...

[FreedomAngel82]

21. Right

Jesus didn't say "eye for an eye". He said "turn the other cheek."

[Catherine Vincent]

23. Yes.

It doesn't matter if she was innocent or guilty. There should be no death penalty PERIOD.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

26. I wouldn't want to

take that stain on my soul with me when I leave the planet. We shouldn't ask prison employees to do murder for us.

[Minstrel Boy]

27. True.

I wasn't persuaded of her innocence, but I was convinced she deserved a new trial and should not have been put to death even if she were guilty.

State murder shames a nation. And the US is keeping some pretty shitty company by retaining it. For instance: "The US is one of six countries (including also Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) which executes people who were under 18 years-old at the time they committed their crimes."

[HamdenRice]

22. Austin station reports Frances Newton has been killed

It's too sad for words.

http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/default.asp?ArID=145525

Frances Newton executed in Huntsville
Updated: 9/14/2005 6:49 PM
By: Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE -- Frances Newton was the third woman and first black woman executed since Texas resumed capital punishment in the early '80s.

[alarimer]

25. This is just sick

Apparently her lawyer sucked (he is not allowed to try DP cases anymore)- never called any witnesses. The evidence all came from a crime lab that has since been discredited so is probably worth nothing. But apparently old Gov. Goodhair is so blood thirsty that evidence does not matter. God I hate these fuckers. I also know that new evidence or bad lawyering is sadly not enough to overturn a conviction. Did I mention how much I hate these blood thirsty assholes????

[HamdenRice]

28. WAPO confirms: it is done

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/14/AR2005091402206.html

Woman Executed for Texas Family Slayings

By MICHAEL GRACZYK
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; 7:47 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Frances Newton was executed Wednesday for the fatal shootings of her husband and two children 18 years ago, becoming the third woman, and first black woman, to be put to death in the state since executions resumed in 1982.

[Zynx]

30. Bush probably got off on that.

He LOVES the death penalty. He loves it way too much to be healthy.