Urgent: 3 Days to Execution of Frances Newton

From: Cerene Roberts <more_cerene at yahoo.com>
Date sent: Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:44:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [NewPacifica] Fwd: 3 DAYS TO LIVE...

> Please forward widely.

Please save the life of Frances Newton.
http://www.freefrances.org

Frances Newton was 21 when she was charged with
killing her husband Adrian, her 7-year old son Alton
and 21-month daughter Farrah.

That was 18 years ago.

Her hands bore no trace of blood or gunpowder residue.
Although her family was shot at close range there were
no blood splatters on her clothing and no signs that
the apartment had been cleaned up. The nitrite on her
skirt which could have come from fertilizer in the
large garden of her uncle's house where she'd spent
the afternoon was destroyed by the Houston police lab
who then contaminated the garment by storing it with
the victims' clothing.

Prosecutors neglected to mention the discovery of a
second gun, of the same caliber, at the crime scene.
This inconvenient, insignificant fact slipped out in a
television interview. Frances' current attorneys
believe that police sloppiness about noting the serial
number and time and recovery location of the weapons
allowed them to be mixed up. The prosecution claimed
her motive was $100,000 in life insurance proceeds but
Frances, an accounting clerk, says the policies were
also a savings plan and a response suggested by her
dad to relatives' hardship after a fatal house-fire
weeks earlier.

The police failed to investigate the report that
another man boasted that he had instructions to
collect a drug debt "with orders to kill everybody
present if the man did not have the money."

Frances' lawyer, "Death Row" Ronald Mock - known for
his spectacular under-performance in 16 capital cases,
including that of Shaka Sankofa aka Gary Graham
(executed 2000) - conducted no investigation before
the trial. His co-counsel, Catherine Coulter, has
since acknowledged that they provided ineffective
legal assistance.

Whether you reject the death penalty on general
principle, in cases where there is no DNA evidence or
because of the racially discriminatory way it has been
used, this case clearly has problems.


Please join Frances' in-laws in asking that her life
be spared. Follow the instructions at
http://www.freefrances.org .

Call and write the offices of the Board of Pardons and
Paroles and governor of the state of Texas, now.

In struggle,
Sister One


REFERENCES:
Case Specific -
http://www.freefrances.org
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-09-09/pols_feature3.html
http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/tmn/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1072
http://people.smu.edu/rhalperi/action.html
http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/news.jsp?key=1653
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/
http://www.adelante.com/burdine/news/wp051200.html

General -
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/index.php
http://www.derechos.org/dp/#abo
http://www.theotherside.org/archive/nov-dec00/brasfield.html
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/deathrow.htm

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