Affidavit of Bettie’s daughter, Faye Lane, to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

State of Texas

County of Dallas

1. My name is Faye Lane and Betty Beets is my mother. I am writing this to ask the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Governor to save my Mama’s life. I love Mama very much and do not want her to die. I want my kids and grandkids to be able to visit, write, and talk to Mama.

2. I know that Mama is in prison for a terrible crime. I feel very bad for Jimmy Don’s family.

3. I do not know what happened the night that Jimmy Don died because I wasn’t there. But I know that if the jury heard the truth about Mama they would have seen that she only could have done something like this is she felt very scared. The jury never heard any reason to have compassion about Mama. And when I told E. Ray, he wouldn’t listen.

4. All Mama’s life she has been abused. I have seen her beaten up by her husbands more times than I can remember. Because Mama was beaten up so many times she knew, like every woman who has been beaten up that much knows, when the next beating was just around the corner. I myself lived with a man who used to beat me up horribly. People who don’t live with that just don’t understand what that does to you. How helpless, vulnerable, and ashamed it makes you feel. But when you live with a man like that, you also come to know his moods. The little things he says, the way he looks at you, the way he acts – just the way he puts his keys down on the counter – that tell you its going to be a bad night. My mama knew those things because she went through a lot of bad nights. I remember many, many times when Wayne beat her up all night long. Beatings aren’t the only thing that Mama had to go through. I know that she also had to go through bad sexual abuse. This kind of abuse is very difficult for Mama to think and talk about because she it makes her feel humiliated and embarrassed.

5. Like I said, I don’t know what happened the night Jimmy Don died, I do believe that my Mama would not hurt someone unless she felt threatened.

6. I wish to God the jury had heard the truth about Mama. I gave E. Ray pictures of Mama that I took after Wayne had beat her up. E. Ray never used them. He never asked any of us to talk about the beatings that Mama took for many years of her life. I pray that you will listen now and hear the truth about my Mama. I am not saying that Mama should go free, just that she be allowed to live out her remaining years in prison.

Faye Lane