September 14th Update: Frances Newton was executed today by the state of Texas. KPFT's interview with her attorney
Sept. 13th Update: Wednesday will be the last day on which phone calls can be made to urge the Governor of Texas to give clemency to Frances Newton. Read more

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Frances Newton on September 14th. She was convicted of the 1988 murder of her husband and two children, allegedly to collect a $100,00 life insurance policy. Newton would be the first African American woman executed by that state since the Civil War. Her December 1st, 2004 execution date had been put on hold last fall for additional testing of evidence. Human Rights Watch letter on Newton's behalf The ACLU of Texas has written a letter asking that she be given clemency. Supporters say the courts should grant Frances Newton another trial based on new evidence.

In a recent interview, Assistant DA Roe Wilson contradicted a key piece of evidence that led to Newton's conviction- there seems to have been a second gun that was never tested in a crime lab. Texas leads the nation in the number of executions performed since the moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in 1974. In Harris County, where Frances Newton is from, the police crime lab is notorious for botching capital cases. Newton's original state-appointed attorney was Ron Mock, who has lost so many capital cases that he is known as "death row Mock." He has never won an acquittal in a capital case. Mock is the attorney who is notorious for having fallen asleep in court while defending the late Shaka Sankofa (formerly Gary Graham). Read more

The International Action Center is asking for people to write letters to Texas Governor Rick Perry, Attorney General Greg Abbott, President Bush, Congressional leaders and Senators and Representatives from Texas and the Texas State Legislature, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and other authorities, to demand that Frances' execution be stopped. Read more

www.freefrances.org | Texas Moratorium Network | Amnesty International statement