View source for Frances Newton

{{Short description|Executed by the state of Texas 2005}}
{{Other uses|Frances Newton (disambiguation)}}
{{multiple issues|
{{Inline|date=November 2022}}
{{confusing|date=December 2022}}
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{{Infobox criminal
| name              = Frances Newton
| image             = 
| image_size        = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = 
| birth_name        = Frances Elaine McLemore
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1965|4|12|mf=yes}}
| death_date        = {{death date and age|2005|9|14|1965|4|12|mf=yes}}
| death_place       = [[Huntsville Unit]], [[Huntsville, Texas]], U.S.
| cause             = [[Execution by lethal injection]]
| conviction        = [[Capital murder]] (3 counts)<br>[[Forgery]]
| conviction_penalty = [[Capital punishment in Texas|Death]] (November 17, 1988)
| conviction_status = [[Executed]]
| birth_place       = [[Harris County, Texas]], U.S.
| motive            = [[Life insurance|Life insurance money]]
}}

'''Frances Elaine Newton''' ({{nee}} McLemore; April 12, 1965 – September 14, 2005) was an American convicted murderer who was [[Capital punishment in Texas|executed]] by [[lethal injection]] in the state of [[Texas]] for the April 7, 1987 murder of her husband, Adrian, age 23, her son, Alton, age 7, and her daughter, Farrah, 20 months.

Frances Newton was just shy of her 22nd birthday when she committed the murders for which she was executed. She was 40 years of age.

She was convicted on November 17, 1987, for killing her three family members "execution style", however Frances claimed not to be guilty even in her last moments alive. It is reported that Adrian and Frances had marital problems, and that Adrian struggled with substance abuse.

== Forgery conviction ==
In December 1985, Newton was sentenced to three years of [[probation]] for [[forgery]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Execution Report: Frances Newton - Page 1 |url=http://www.txexecutions.org/reports/349-Frances-Newton.htm |access-date=2022-05-04 |website=www.txexecutions.org}}</ref>

==Details of killings==
{{Moresources|section|date=November 2022}}
All three victims were shot with a .25 [[caliber]] [[pistol]] which belonged to a man that Newton had been seeing at the time. Newton claimed that a drug dealer killed the three. The Houston police presented evidence that Newton's husband was a drug dealer and was in debt to his supplier. Newton maintained her innocence from her first interrogation in 1987 until her execution in 2005.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Without Evidence: Executing Frances Newton|url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2005-09-09/288994/|last=Smith|first=Jordan|website=www.austinchronicle.com|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-30|date=September 9, 2005}}</ref>

Prosecutors revealed that Newton had purchased [[life insurance]] policies for her husband, her daughter and herself approximately one month before the triple homicide. The policies were valued at $50,000 each. Newton named herself as the beneficiary for her husband's and daughter's policies. She claimed that she forged her husband's signature in order to prevent him from discovering that she set aside money to pay the premiums. Prosecutors cited these facts as the basis for her motive.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Frances Newton Executed In Texas
|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/frances-newton-executed-in-texas/|website=www.cbsnews.com|language=en-US|access-date=2024-09-18|date=September 14, 2005}}</ref>

Newton was also found to have placed a paper bag containing the murder weapon in a relative's home shortly after the murders. On October 25, 1988, Newton was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death; she spent nearly 17 years on [[death row]] before being executed by lethal injection on September 14, 2005.

==Death row==
{{unsourced|section|date=November 2022}}
[[File:Entrance to TDCJ Mountain View Unit.jpg|thumb|[[Mountain View Unit]], where Newton was held]]
Two hours before her first scheduled execution on December 1, 2004, [[List of Governors of Texas|Texas Governor]] [[Rick Perry]] granted a 120-day reprieve to allow more time to test forensic evidence in the case. There were also conflicting reports as to whether a second gun was recovered from the scene; [[ballistics]] reports appeared to demonstrate that a gun recovered by law enforcement and allegedly connected to Newton after the offense was the murder weapon. A relative of Newton who was incarcerated shortly after the murders claimed a person he shared a cell with boasted of killing the family. Numerous individuals, including three members of the convicting jury, expressed concern over evidence that was not presented during the trial.

On August 24, 2005, the [[Texas Court of Criminal Appeals]] turned down a motion for a [[stay of execution]]. It turned down another appeal on September 9 for [[writ of habeas corpus]]. It was her fourth application.
The [[Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles]] voted 7–0 on September 12 not to recommend that her sentence be commuted to life imprisonment, despite evidence raising doubt about her guilt and a letter from her husband's parents asking that her life be spared. The same day the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] refused an appeal of her sentence. 

Her new attorney, David Dow, asked Governor Perry for a 30-day stay to prove that Newton was wrongly linked to the murder weapon. The [[Supreme Court of the United States]] declined without dissent two appeals on September 13.

==Execution==
[[File:HuntsvilleUnitHuntsvilleTX.jpg|thumb|left|[[Huntsville Unit]], where Newton was executed]]
The execution was carried out as scheduled on September 14, 2005, by lethal injection. Newton spent a little more than {{frac|17|1|2}} years on death row before her execution, and was the third woman executed in Texas since the resumption of capital punishment in the state in 1982. The first and second were [[Karla Faye Tucker]] and [[Betty Lou Beets]].
Like Beets before her, Newton made no final statement and did not have a [[last meal]] request.

Newton's story was featured in the ''[[Fatal Attraction (2013 TV series)|Fatal Attraction]]'' episode, "A Lethal Love". It is the seventeenth episode of the program's third season. It has also been featured on ''[[Deadly Women]]''. Newton also appeared as herself in the 2006 television documentary "Women on Death Row", where her guilt is put into question and her innocence was discussed before she was executed.<ref>{{Cite web
| url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0769556/fullcredits?ref_=ttpl_ql_dt_1
| title = Women on Death Row (2006 TV Movie) Full Cast & Crew
| access-date = March 24, 2022
| author = IMDb
| website = IMDb}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Biography|Texas|Law}}
* [[Capital punishment in Texas]]
* [[Capital punishment in the United States]]
* [[List of people executed in Texas, 2000–2009]]
* [[List of people executed in the United States in 2005]]
* [[List of women executed in the United States since 1976]]
{{-}}

==General references==
* {{Cite news|url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=1545&scid=64|title=Texas Woman Faces Execution Despite Questions Regarding Her Guilt|publisher=Death Penalty Information Center|date=2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060303013429/http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=1545&scid=64|archive-date=2006-03-03}}
* {{Cite news|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-09-09/pols_feature3.html|title=Without Evidence: Executing Frances Newton|publisher=Austin Chronicle|date=September 9, 2005|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130617134239/http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2005-09-09/288994/|archive-date=June 17, 2013|url-status=live}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070203140358/http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ncadp/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1132 Report] from [[National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930020434/http://www.texasmoratorium.org/article.php?sid=1022 Report] from [[Texas Moratorium Network]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071120043354/http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/newtonfrancislast.htm Last Statement]. ''[[Texas Department of Criminal Justice]]''. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
* [http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/newton982.htm Frances Elaine Newton]. ''The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney''. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.

{{Authority control}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Frances}}
[[Category:1965 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American women]]
[[Category:21st-century African-American women]]
[[Category:21st-century executions by Texas]]
[[Category:21st-century executions of American people]]
[[Category:American female murderers]]
[[Category:American murderers of children]]
[[Category:American people executed for murder]]
[[Category:Executed African-American people]]
[[Category:Executed American women]]
[[Category:Executed female murderers]]
[[Category:Familicides in the United States]]
[[Category:Female murderers of children]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Texas]]
[[Category:People executed by Texas by lethal injection]]
[[Category:Criminals from Houston]]