The first black female to be executed in Texas will receive a lethal injection at 6 p.m. today.
Frances Elaine Newton, 40, has spent the last 18 years on death row. She was convicted of murdering her husband and two children in Houston in April 1987. Prosecutors claimed she killed them to collect on a $50,000 life-insurance policy.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted Monday in a 7-0 decision declining Newton's requests that the board recommend for Gov. Rick Perry to commute her death sentence to life in prison. The vote came two days before Newton's scheduled execution.
Rissie Owens, presiding officer of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, said in a statement that each board member gave full consideration to Newton's clemency request. The board considered all the information submitted from any interested parties including prosecutors, family members and the public. He said Newton's claims of innocence were not substantiated.
"I wish that the courts and the parole board would have been a little less anxious to assume that everything that the state is saying is true," David Dow, University of Houston law professor, said. "The state is saying things that are not true."
Gov. Rick Perry granted Newton a 120-day reprieve on Dec. 1, 2004 on her scheduled execution day to allow pardons and paroles officials further investigation regarding the alleged murder weapon, a .25-caliber pistol.
Dow has represented Newton since the summer of 2004. He said he did not believe Newton had access to the murder weapon, a fact he says the state has falsified.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People actively protested Newton's case at the governor's office, said Nelson Linder, head of the Austin chapter. He said he never once received any sort of response from state officials. NAACP protested the case on legal and moral grounds.
"Given the fact that the evidence was not clear, and she did not have an effective council makes you question due process," Linder said. "Race always plays a factor in any crime in America. It is very troubling."
Dow refused to comment on the issue of race in the sentencing.
Newton's mother, father and three siblings will be present at the execution as well as her former husband's two cousins.
According to Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Newton did not request a last meal, but one will be provided if she decides that afternoon to have one.
Dow said when he spoke to Newton Tuesday morning, she was hopeful. But her lawyer said he knew time was running out. Since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1982, the state has executed 348 people. Newton will be the third female and first black female.
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