In April 1987, Frances Newton of Harris County, Texas, picked up the phone and called 911 to report that her husband and children had been murdered. When police arrived at the scene, they found her husband Adrian, who was 23 at the time, dead on the couch, and her two children Alton, then 7, and Farah, who was 2, both dead in their beds.

At first, police had no leads, but thirteen days later, Newton was arrested and charged with three counts of capital murder. Her motive was thought to have been $100,000 in life insurance money. In 1988, she was convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection. Today could be the day that this sentence is carried out. Or not.

Yesterday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to recommend Gov. Rick Perry delay the scheduled execution so that additional evidence can be considered. She would be the third woman executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982.

Newton has maintained her innocence for the past seventeen years, and there has been some question as to the caliber of her legal defense. Her court-appointed lawyer, Ron Mock, has lost sixteen capital cases, and Catherine Coulter, another attorney who worked with Mock on the case, signed an affidavit agreeing that she and Mock provided poor legal assistance.

Mock claims that by the time Newton’s trial date arrived, he was “burned out” and unenthused. Apparently, he had asked to be excused from the case but that request was denied. He has since been barred from accepting court-appointed capital cases.

One of the key pieces of evidence in this case is the murder weapon. Prosecutors claim that it was a .25-caliber pistol they found discarded near Newton’s apartment. She admitted to having tossed the gun, but says she was doing it to protect her husband from using it. Her husband was a drug user and had some questionable acquaintances.

Tests on the gun showed evidence of her DNA and Newton had what appeared to be gunpowder residue on her dress at the time of the crime. But new tests may prove her contention that this was actually manure.

Additional evidence, such as a report of an unfamiliar person outside the house on the night of the killings was disregarded at the time of the killings and may also be reexamined. Newton was with relatives at the time of the murders and this information was not exploited at the trial.