Doubts raised about '87 case of Texas Black Woman facing death

• She would be the 1st black woman to be put to death in Texas since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1982.

Newton, 39, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday. She would be the third woman and the first black woman to be put to death in Texas since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1982. The distinction has attracted more than the usual scant attention given to executions in Texas, where 23 inmates have been put to death so far this year. But the circumstances of Newton's conviction have set her case apart. During the 17 years in which Newton's case has wound through state and federal courts, her attorneys say, the evidence against her has never been examined independently. Her original defense attorney, Ron Mock -- who has been suspended three times by the Texas Bar Association and no longer is allowed to take court-appointed capital murder cases -- interviewed no witnesses before the trial. Ballistics tests key to convicting Newton were conducted by the now-discredited Houston Police Department crime lab. Traces of nitrite particles found on her clothing -- which could have come from a gun blast or something as common as garden fertilizer -- now can be more precisely tested to determine its source. With her federal and state appeals all but exhausted, Newton's attorneys petitioned the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this month to issue a 120-day reprieve to allow for a thorough look at the evidence. [more]