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With the scheduled execution of convicted killer Frances Newton less than four weeks away, supporters of the Harris County woman are increasing their efforts to delay her death. Newton would be the first black woman executed in Texas in almost 150 years.
Outside the Harris County Criminal Justice Center downtown, Newton’s supporters, people like Hitagi Aziz, hold signs and wear t-shirts proclaiming her innocence. “What we’re trying to do is create enough visual opportunities, enough educational opportunities, so that people will know that this is about Frances Newton but it’s about a bigger issue, about death and life in Texas,” says Aziz.
Newton was convicted in 1988 of killing her husband and two children, for insurance money prosecutors say, and is scheduled to die September 14th. She’s already avoided an execution date last December, thanks to a 120-day reprieve from Governor Rick Perry and has filed, and lost nearly a dozen appeals. Supporter Robert Gartner says Newton deserves a new shot with a new attorney and fresh evidence. “I want the process to work if it can work,” says Gartner. “I’m not sure it has a basis for functioning for indigent people.”
Newton’s new attorney, David Dow, filed his latest appeal in State Court in early July and is waiting for a ruling from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. He also plans to file a clemency petition with the Board of Pardons and Paroles this week. “We believe Frances Newton is innocent. And beyond that, we think that if the jury knew what we know, the jury wouldn’t have convicted her,” says Dow. “Frances Newton’s trial lawyer didn’t do his job and the state, in our opinion, hid a critically important piece of evidence.”
That evidence, Dow says, is an identical gun to the one used in the killing that was found in Newton’s apartment. Rusty Hubbarth is with the organization Justice For All and says Newton has used up her chances and should be put to death.
The last woman executed in the Texas death chamber was Betty Lou Beets, who was given a lethal injection in 2000.