Mama and Daddy grieving their baby girl.
Newton is executed for slaying her family
She is the first black woman put to death in Texas since Civil War
By ALLAN TURNER and CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
HUNTSVILLE - Frances Newton, convicted of killing her husband and two children to gain $100,000 in insurance benefits, was executed Wednesday as dozens of death house protesters fervently prayed for her deliverance and chanted their opposition to the state's death penalty.
After weeks of intense legal wrangling, Newton's execution went ahead after the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Rick Perry refused to intervene. She was the 349th killer put to death in Texas since executions were resumed in 1982, and the first black woman executed in Texas since the Civil War.
Sentenced to die for the 1987 murders of her husband, Adrian, 23, and the couple's children, Alton, 7, and Farrah, 21 months, Newton offered no final statement. Seemingly nervous, she stared blankly at the ceiling, then turned toward the witness rooms to mouth inaudible words.
In the witness room reserved for her relatives, Newton's sister, Pamela Nelms, cradled her head in her arms, which she had thrust against a rear wall. In the room occupied by her husband's family, a cousin, Tamika Craft-Demming, began to weep when it became apparent the drugs had been administered.
"It's OK. It's over with now," another relative whispered, placing an arm around her shoulder. "Eighteen years. It's over with now."
Read the entire story....
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3354665
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