Sunday
Dec052004
Texas Governor Stays Black Woman's Execution
Sunday, December 5, 2004 at 01:39AM
Texas Gov. Rick Perry granted a rare stay of execution
to a Houston woman just hours before she was scheduled to die on
Wednesday night by lethal injection for the 1987 murder of her husband
and two children. Frances Newton, 39, has protested her innocence since
she was charged in the shooting deaths of her husband Adrian, 23, son
Alton, 7, and daughter Farrah, 21 months, in what prosecutors said was
an attempt to collect $100,000 from life insurance policies on her
family. Had she been put to death, Newton would have been the first
black woman to be executed in Texas and the fourth woman to be executed
in the state since 1863. The decision by Perry, a Republican, came one
day after the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to recommend
Newton receive a four-month stay. In a statement issued by his office
in Austin, Texas, Perry said the court record showed "no evidence" of
Newton's innocence. The governor said he was granting additional time
so courts can order further laboratory tests on evidence in the case.
Newton's supporters charge she was the victim of poor work done by the
Houston Police Department crime laboratory, which has been plagued by
scandals in the past few years. [more] and [more]