Posted on 09/13/2005 6:24:11 AM PDT by texianyankee
Frances Newton, condemned for the 1987 murder of her husband and two young children, was a step closer to execution Friday after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed her latest application for writ of habeas corpus, saying she had presented no new evidence to warrant a stay.
In a petition filed Tuesday, Newton's Texas Innocence Network attorneys argued that two, possibly three, pistols were recovered the night that Adrian Newton, 23, and the couple's children, Alton, 7, and Farrah, 21 months, were shot to death at their Harris County apartment.
If multiple weapons were seized as evidence, they contended, it's possible authorities bungled their processing and that a key element of the prosecution's case that the pistol Newton hid after the killings was the murder weapon is false.
"Is it plausible to think that the Houston Police Department ballistics lab mixed up the weapons?"attorney David Dow asked Friday. "Well, in view of what we know now from faulty ballistics evidence in other cases, to dozens of mistakes in DNA analysis, to scores of boxes of lost or missing evidence I would think that only the most stubborn, naive or disingenuous prosecutor would say with any confidence that Newton is guilty."
Newton, who claims she is innocent, is scheduled to die Wednesday for killing her family to gain $100,000 in insurance death benefits. She would be the third woman put to death in Texas since the state resumed executions 23 years ago.
Trial testimony revealed that Newton and her husband, a user and seller of drugs, had a rocky marriage. Adrian Newton engaged in numerous extramarital affairs; Frances Newton spent the night before the murders with her lover, whose pistol was used in the crime.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
These days,it's quite common for people to be murdered for pocket change...or a pair of sneakers.So $100,000 is a mighty compelling motive.Killing the kids would mean that she would have gotten 100% of it,rather than 33% or 50%.
Yeah, then things got worse.........he eventually became mayor.
EEOC == Equal Opportunity!
;>)
Now, if only more states would follow suit...
NEXT!
My favorite comedian.
Doomed from the start.
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