Sept. 12 TEXAS----impending female execution Parole Board Declines To Commute Houston Womans Death Sentence The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 Monday against commuting the death sentence of Womens Death Row inmate Francis Newton, 40, whos scheduled to die by injection Wednesday for the murders of her husband and 2 children 18 years ago. The vote came hours after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to halt the execution. Newtons attorneys have appeals pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Newton would be only the 3rd woman and the 1st black woman executed in Texas since executions resumed in 1982. (source: KWTX News) MISSISSIPPI: State's Only Woman On Death Row Wants New Trial----Petition Claims New Evidence The only woman on Mississippi's death row is seeking a new trial before the Supreme Court. Michelle Byrom appeal is among dozens the Supreme Court will decide based on written briefs submitted by attorneys. Byrom is back before the court on a post-conviction petition. Inmates use the petitions to claim they have discovered new evidence that would justify a new trial. The state Supreme Court upheld Byrom's conviction and death sentence in 2003. A Tishomingo County judge turned down her post-conviction petition last year. Byrom was convicted in 2000 of killing her husband of 20 years and recruiting her son in the plot. In a rare move at her 2000 trial, Michelle Byrom asked Circuit Judge Thomas Gardner -- instead of the jury -- to decide whether she should serve life in prison or be put to death. Gardner sentenced her to death. Prosecutors said Byrom killed her husband for money. Defense attorneys argued she had been physically abused as a child and by her husband. (source: Associated Press)
