Frances Netwton is due to be executed by the State of Texas in two days. She is innocent.
Please call the Governor and urge him to not kill Frances Newton.
+1 (512) 463-1782
freefrances.org
and for an interview with Frances’ mother and audio coverage:
Mikeypod
13 replies on “YR SPECIAL REPORT PODCAST”
Thousands of poor/blacks neglected in the aftermath of Katrina. An innocent black woman “scheduled to die” (which is more like “scheduled to be killed”) in 2 days.
Coincidence that black people are getting the short end of the deal?
While I understand the motivation to save a life… how is it that you are certain she is innocent? I listened to your interview with her mother, and it seems she makes a case for a new trial based on misdeeds of the prosecutor, but I didn’t hear anything that established her innocence.
And to commenter Adam B…. it’s about CLASS not RACE. I believe OJ proved that.
Well you see, in this cuntry, in theory at least, we have this principle called “innocent until proven guilty.” She has not been proven guilty and is therefore innocent. Regarding CLASS vs. RACE, how can you be so sure of that when you have never experienced what it’s like to be a minority? Have you read all the experiences of the hundreds of people who were trying to cross teh bridge out of New Orleans only to be faced by armed cops refusing to let “those people” into the area? I supposed “those people” means poor people to you. Well, racism is alive and well and living in America. I have experienced plenty of it first hand being raised in the bible belt.
I am all too aware of how well established racism is in this country. My view on the legal system however is that money talks and wealth walks… regardless of race.
Now if you want to look at how wealth is distributed in the country you might well be talking about racism.
As far as Newton is concerned, I didn’t see or hear any testimony or evidence. My feeling is that the jury knows much more about the case than I do, so I’m less inclined to declare their verdict invalid, knowing only what the defendant’s mother said in one interview.
The question of whether or not we should be executing anyone in a system where the poor get an inferior defense is something else entirely.
If you go to freefrances.org you can get caught up to speed pretty quickly.
In a nutshell, public defender did very little, if anything to prepare for her case. And he has since been barred from taking anymore capital (er…capitol?) cases. With that in mind, how much did the jury really know?
Through a slip of the tongue, the assistant DA revealed the fact that they had witheld some evidence a couple months ago. Namely a gun that was found on the crime scene.
Those two things to me prove to me that she deserves another trial.
Tomorrow is the day, so it may be a moot point before too long. But that’s the thing. There is no turning back if she is killed tomorrow.
I have no problem with a new trial. It sounds appropriate. My only question was how Madge was able to declare her innocent. In my mind, she may well be guilty. Juries usually take their job very seriously. If a jury found her guilty, I am not inclined to summarily ignore that. Impropriety by the prosecution should certainly give her a new trial, or at the very least a careful examination by an appeals court judge, but I doubt that Madge’s declaration “she is innocent” has much basis beyond her enthusiasm for the case. I could be wrong, therefore I make no declaration of fact. I don’t know enough. I already knew parts of the story you brought up.
She has not been proven guilty and is therefore innocent.
Correction- If she has not been proven guilty then she is considered ‘not guilty’. That has nothing to do with what we consider the word ‘innocent’ means.
apparently the black out in LA affected the servers which house my website.
hopefully the site will be back up soon.
🙁
fuck
Madge, your mp3 is loaded on my site. The Gayborhood Radio audience is all over this.
Thanks for the info Madge baby!
Thanks, Marsha!
Madge means the bible belt which streches… little known fact.. into the Bronx. Just to clear that up.
That the death penalty came and went only to come back again is a pitiful narrative of what voting Texans want to be as a whole … but FWIW, reading the news and blog sites, the overall picture is confusing, issues of race and just how many guns aside.
She is reported as having both removed a gun from the apartment in the interests of her husband’s wellbeing, and as having taken one along with her as protection against her husband at separate times on the same night.
“Newton admitted taking a gun with her to her husband’s apartment on the night of the killings, but she said she took it for protection and that her family members were alive when she left.”
VS
“That’s when I found the gun,” she said […] “I thought I’d better take [the gun] out of there because I didn’t want it to be in the house.”
You have to wonder if the facts can surface through the emotions brought out by such a case. Sadly, it does have an entertaining aspect for the media, and clearly a very satisfying one for some very sick Texans.
As long as (usually) old, unenlightened people are in positions of power, this sort of hideous “justice” will continue.
Death will get them in the end, too.
See http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-09-09/pols_feature3.html and http://crime.about.com/od/female_offenders/p/deathrow9.htm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article YR SPECIAL REPORT PODCAST, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.