Sept. 14
TEXAS----female execution
Newton executed for 1987 slaying
In Huntsville, Frances Newton was executed today for the fatal shootings
of her husband and two children 18 years ago, becoming the 3rd woman, and
1st black woman, to be put to death in the state since executions resumed
in 1982.
Strapped to the death chamber gurney and with her parents among the people
watching, she declined to make a final statement, quietly saying "no" and
shaking her head when the warden asked if she would like to speak.
Newton briefly turned her head to make eye contact with her family as the
drugs began flowing. She appeared to attempt to mouth something to her
relatives, but the drugs took affect. She coughed once and gasped as her
eyes closed and her mouth remained slightly open. 8 minutes later at 6:17
p.m. CDT, she was pronounced dead.
One of her sisters stood flat against a wall at the rear of the death
house, her arms raised against the wall and her head buried in her arms,
refusing to watch. Her parents held hands and her mother brushed away a
tear before they walked to the back of the chamber to console their other
daughter.
About 3 dozen demonstrators chanted outside but the crowd paled in
comparison to the group of hundreds that assembled in 1998 to protest the
execution of Karla Faye Tucker, who was the 1st woman executed in Texas
since the Civil War.
"She's back with her family, in her mind," said John LaGrappe, one of her
attorneys, who met with Newton less than 2 hours before she was executed
and described her as "strong and optimistic."
"It's her faith in God," LaGrappe said.
He characterized her as the victim of a set of statutes that denied her
access to the Supreme Court and blamed state-appointed lawyers early in
her appeals process for missing deadlines that barred Newton from raising
legal claims.
"It's a sad statement about the judicial process," he said. "To me, this
is outrageous."
Without dissent, the high court declined a pair of appeals about an hour
before Newton was scheduled to be taken to the Texas death chamber.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which last year paved the way for
Gov. Rick Perry to issue a reprieve about 2 hours before Newton was set to
die, on Monday unanimously rejected a request that her death sentence be
commuted to life in prison. Perry rejected another delay in the execution
Wednesday afternoon.
She also lost appeals in state and lower federal courts. Her execution was
the 13th this year in Texas. She was the 11th woman executed in the United
States since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed the death penalty to
resume.
Newton didn't deny putting a gun in her 7-year-old son's knapsack and
stashing the bag at an abandoned house. But she and her lawyers argued the
.25-caliber blue steel revolver she hid was not the one used to fatally
shoot her son, Alton; her 21-month-old daughter, Farrah; and her husband,
Adrian, 23, at their Houston apartment.
Newton insisted she was innocent, and the claim about the gun was among
several in her appeal to the Supreme Court. She also contended her trial
attorneys were incompetent and evidence at her trial improperly was
destroyed.
"I know I did not murder my kids and my family," she told The Associated
Press in a death row interview. "It's frustrating ... nobody's had to
answer for that."
Prosecutors called Newton's appeals meritless, noting that a second gun
never was recovered, that repeated ballistics tests confirmed the gun she
hid was the murder weapon, and that any destruction of evidence was not
improper.
"The unbroken chain of custody directly links Newton to the murder
weapon," the Texas Attorney General's Office said in its filing to the
Supreme Court. Newton, accompanied by a cousin, found the bodies April 7,
1987. Her husband had been shot in the head, the 2 children in the chest,
all with a .25-caliber pistol.
3 weeks before the slayings, Newton took out $50,000 life insurance
policies on herself, her husband and her daughter. She named herself as
beneficiary and said she signed her husband's name to prevent him from
discovering she had set aside money to pay for the premiums.
Prosecutors said the insurance payoff was the motive for the slayings.
The bag Newton hid contained a .25-caliber handgun and was recovered by
police. But attorneys argued it wasn't the same weapon Newton left in the
bag, and the weapons somehow got switched. Newton said she found the gun
in a drawer at home and hid it to keep her husband from getting into
trouble.
Adrian Newton had a drug history and the couple was having marital
problems. Both had extramarital affairs. According to court records, the
gun came from the apartment of Newton's boyfriend, where she spent the
night before the slayings.
The reprieve last year was granted to allow for additional ballistics
testing on the weapon. In March, the new ballistics tests confirmed
earlier findings and Harris County officials then rescheduled her
execution.
Newton believed the real killer is or may be related to a drug dealer she
knew only as "Charlie," who she said was upset with her husband for not
repaying a $500 debt.
Newton becomes the 13th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
Texas, and the 349th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on
December 7, 1982.
Newton becomes the 110th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas
since Rick Perry became Governor in 2001; 152 people were executed during
the tenure of then-Governor George Bush, Perry's predecessor. There are at
least 11 more executions scheduled in Texas before the end of this year.
Newton becomes the 38th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in
the USA and the 982nd overall since America resumed executions on January
17, 1977.
(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
