Execution
The execution was carried out as scheduled on September 14, 2005 by lethal injection. Newton struggled and thrashed, knocking out one of the nurses. Frances Newton 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, respectively.
Like Beets before her, Newton made no final statement and did not have a last meal request. Over 30 protesters from the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, the National Black United Front, and the New Black Panther Party had gathered outside the prison. In addition, about 75 people protested the execution outside the governor's mansion in Austin. According to the results of a Public Information Act request submitted by Texas Moratorium Network to the office of Governor Rick Perry, 12,201 people contacted the governor asking him to stop Newton's execution and 10 people contacted him in support of her execution.
During the investigation of Frances Newton, the forensic crime lab in the Houston Police Department was also experiencing intense criticism for the handling of evidence. Michael R. Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department official, said the Houston Police Department and city officials "failed to provide the crime lab with adequate resources to meet growing demands" for at least 15 years before the exposure of problems in its DNA division.
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