Human Rights Watch: halt execution of Texas woman

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Human Rights Watch: halt execution of Texas woman
(Washington, November 30, 2004) The state of Texas should halt the execution of Frances Newton, scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday for a triple murder in 1987, Human Rights Watch said today. Newton, a 39-year-old African-American woman, was convicted largely on the basis of evidence tests conducted by the widely discredited Harris County crime lab in Houston.

"Governor Perry and the Texas parole board should stay the execution to allow Ms. Newton's attorneys to investigate new evidence that she may be innocent," said Wendy Patten, U.S. advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Considering the controversy surrounding Houston's crime lab, it is the only reasonable choice to avoid sending a possibly innocent woman to her death.

Earlier this month Houston's chief of police, Harold Hurtt, called on the state to delay all executions in cases where the troubled lab's evidence was used. The Harris County crime lab, responsible for investigations in Houston, has been surrounded by controversy since early 2003, when hundreds of missing boxes were found that pertained to 8,000 criminal cases. An independent audit also revealed alarming defects in the crime lab's DNA analysis.

The Houston Police Department is still reviewing the evidence uncovered in 2003. Recent cases have shown that the problems at the crime lab include missing evidence, defective DNA analysis and inaccurate ballistic analysis. Already one Harris County case has been overturned based on the prosecution's use of incorrect DNA evidence and in a second case a weapons examiner from the lab admitted the wrong bullet was tested. Many other cases are under appeal or are being investigated by the district attorney's office.

On December 1, the Texas parole board recommended delaying Newton's execution of a woman accused of killing her husband and two young children, leaving the chance for a reprieve in the hands of the governor. Gov. Rick Perry can agree with the board's 5-1 vote or allow the execution to go ahead as scheduled Wednesday. Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said late Tuesday the case was under review.

Newton could become the first black woman executed in Texas. She was convicted in the 1987 shooting deaths of her husband and two children, ages 20 months and 7. Prosecutors said Newton killed her family to collect $100,000 in insurance benefits.

The parole board recommended delaying her execution for four months so her attorneys can conduct new ballistics tests on the pistol prosecutors said was the murder weapon and chemical analysis on the clothing she was wearing.

On Monday, the state's highest criminal court refused to delay the execution, as did a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Tuesday. Prosecutors have opposed the requests, saying Newton's claims were resolved at her trial and are nothing new.

According to Human Rights Watch, the case against Frances Newton rests largely on ballistic evidence tests conducted in the Harris County lab. From the outset, Newton has maintained her innocence, and there were no eyewitnesses to the crime. Without the ballistic evidence, it is unlikely that Ms. Newton would have been convicted of these murders.

Newton, like so many on death row in the United States, suffered from ineffective assistance of counsel. Her state-appointed trial attorney failed to conduct even a basic investigation on her behalf and presented no witnesses at trial in her defense.

Texas state law gives the governor the power to grant a 30-day reprieve to those facing execution, regardless of the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Parole. The Board can also recommend clemency or, in exceptional circumstances, a longer period of reprieve. If the state grants the 120-day reprieve requested by Ms. Newton's attorneys, they would have time to conduct a thorough investigation of her case, a right she has been denied thus far, including new ballistic testing in a reliable lab. If Newton's death sentence is carried out, she would be the third woman put to death in Texas since the state resumed executions in 1982.

Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all circumstances. The death penalty is a form of punishment unique in its cruelty and finality. The intrinsic fallibility of all criminal justice systems assures that even when full due process of law is respected, innocent persons may be executed.

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