c/o S.H.A.P.E. Community Center
3815 Live Oak, Houston, TX 77004
713-503-2633 – FreeFrances@hotmail.com

www.FreeFrances.org

For Immediate Release – September 6, 2005

Contacts: Hitaji Aziz, 713-278-2917

Gloria Rubac, 713-503-2633

Newton Supporters to Visit Houston City Council Again, Seven Days Before Sept. 14 Execution; Will Ask Each Council Member to Sign Letter to Governor and Pardons Board to Stop Newton’s Execution

On Wednesday, September 7, at 9:30 AM, members of the Committee to Free Frances Newton will speak out at the City Council public session, asking each councilperson to sign a letter to Gov. Rick Perry and to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles asking that the execution be stopped.

When Newton supporters attended last weeks council meeting, only three council members stayed to hear them speak: Ada Edwards, Carol Alvarado, and Gordon Quan.

Subsequently, Quan drafted a resolution in support of Newton, but with the flurry of activity around Hurricane Katrina, the resolution was dropped. There is now, however, a letter that the Committee feels each and every council member should sign.

“This letter is a mild but necessary step to save Frances’ life. Because of the Crime Lab scandal, even Police Chief Harold Hurt is willing to state that there should be no executions from Harris County until the lab mess is cleaned up,”

This week the president of the American Bar Association sent both Perry and the Parole Board a letter asking that the execution be stopped so that Texas courts could examine new evidence in Newton’s case.

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