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Frances Newton
A September 14, 2005 execution date has been set for Frances Newton, 40, who was sentenced to die for the 1987 shooting deaths of her husband, son and daughter. 
Prosecutors say she killed her family in order to collect $100,000 in insurance. Newton claims a drug dealer was the killer. Her defense attorney says he wants tests run on bloody carpet from the crime scene that may exonerate Newton. Texas governor Rick Perry granted Newton a 120-day reprieve just a few hours before she was to have been executed on Dec. 1, 2004, in order to give her attorneys additional time to investigate questions about the evidence used to convict her, but their efforts failed to clear her. From the Texas Attorney General's web site: On the evening of April 7, 1987, a Harris County sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to an apartment complex at 6126 West Mount Houston in response to a report of a possible shooting. The deputy found the bodies of the three victims inside the apartment. All three had been shot to death. Newton and her cousin were at the location when the deputy arrived. A friend of Newton's testified that earlier in the evening, Newton had taken a blue bag out of her car and put it in an abandoned house which belonged to her parents. A homicide detective later recovered the bag, which containing a .25 automatic pistol. A ballistics expert established that the pistol was the murder weapon. A forensics expert for the State established that nitrites were present on the skirt Newton wore on the day of the shootings. In the expert’s opinion, the nitrites came from gunpowder residue and were consistent with someone shooting a pistol in the lower front area of the skirt. Less than a month prior to the murders, Newton purchased a $50,000 life insurance policy on herself, another on her husband and a third on her daughter. Newton, the primary beneficiary on the latter two policies, made claims on the policies following the killings. Psychologist Charles Covert testified at Newton’s trial that based on a hypothetical scenario paralleling the facts in Newton’s case, there is a probability such a person would commit violent acts constituting a threat to society. From December 2004: Virginia Louis does not want to see her daughter-in-law executed on Wednesday night, but she said there is no question in her mind that Frances Newton murdered her family in 1987. "I know she's guilty; there is no doubt in my mind," said Louis, a 61-year-old retired North Forest school bus driver and mother of the man Newton was convicted of killing. Newton, 39, is scheduled for a lethal injection Wednesday for the April 1987 murders of her husband, Adrian Newton,  and her two children, 7-year-old Alton and Farrah Elaine, 21 months.
Frances Newton has repeatedly denied killing her family, saying a drug dealer named "Charlie" may have been responsible. She said her husband owed the man money. State and federal courts have dismissed Newton's claims, and for the family of Adrian Newton, the latest round of denials has been frustrating and painful. "My son didn't use drugs. Why does she keep saying this Charlie? Who is Charlie? There ain't no Charlie. She's Charlie," Louis said in an interview Monday. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals on Monday rejected Newton's 11th-hour appeal, and a similar effort remains pending before the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Her petition for a 120-day reprieve is also pending before the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Prosecutors said Newton killed her family to claim $100,000 in life insurance money. Evidence at the 1988 trial showed Newton forged her husband's signature on life insurance policies bought several months before the deaths. Prosecutors said the murder weapon was a .25-caliber automatic pistol that was found in a blue bag in an abandoned house near her apartment. A witness saw Newton hide the bag in the house. Newton said she had found the unfamiliar gun at home and removed it as a safety precaution. Key evidence at Newton's trial included ballistics evidence linking the gun to the murder. Newton's attorneys have raised questions about the reliability of testing by the Houston Police Department crime lab, which have come under scrutiny in recent years for providing inaccurate evidence at criminal trials. Newton has lodged numerous complaints about Ron Mock, her court-appointed defense attorney. Catherine Coulter, the attorney appointed to work with Mock, signed an affidavit last week agreeing with Newton's attorneys that she and Mock provided ineffective legal assistance. Prosecutors say state and federal appeals courts have thoroughly reviewed all of Newton's claims and have no doubt of Newton's guilt. Several of Adrian Newton's cousins may attend the execution, but his immediate family will not. "We're all opposed to the death penalty," Tom Louis of Houston, Adrian Newton's brother, said. "In my opinion, if someone commits a crime, they should have to live with their mistakes." |
