Alicia Maule
Two key members of Ms. Lucio’ s authentic protection workforce are actually working for the Decide overseeing her case and the District Lawyer searching for to have her executed
(Brownsville, Texas) Attorneys for Melissa Lucio at the moment filed two separate motions to take away Decide Gabriela Garcia, who’s assigned to Ms. Lucio’s case, and District Lawyer Luis Saenz as a result of two key members of Ms. Lucio’s authentic protection workforce now work for them. Assistant District Lawyer Peter Gilman and Decide Garcia’s court docket administrator, Irma Gilman, beforehand represented Ms. Lucio at her 2008 trial.
As her prior protection workforce, Mr. Gilman and Mrs. Gilman owe Ms. Lucio a unbroken obligation to cooperate together with her present counsel, in accordance with at the moment’s filings within the 138th Judicial District Courtroom of Cameron County. (Decide Movement at pp. 1-2. )(D.A. Movement at pp. 11-13.) Ms. Lucio, who’s scheduled for execution on April 27, 2022, was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to demise for the unintended demise of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah.
“Decide Garcia’s and D.A. Saenz’s roles on this case have the impact of obstructing Melissa Lucio’s entry to proof. As Ms. Lucio’s protection workforce at trial, Peter Gilman and Irma Gilman have an obligation to cooperate with Ms. Lucio’s present counsel. However so long as D.A. Saenz is on the case, Peter Gilman’s battle of curiosity prevents him from cooperating with Ms. Lucio’s present attorneys. And so long as Decide Garcia is on the case, Irma Gilman can’t cooperate with Ms. Lucio’s counsel as a result of it could be a prohibited ex parte communication,” mentioned Tivon Schardl, Chief of the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender for the Western District of Texas, and Melissa Lucio’s lawyer.
“Texas regulation robotically disqualifies Decide Garcia and D.A. Saenz. And each circumstances represent due course of violations beneath the 14th Modification,” Schardl added.
Melissa Lucio’s Movement to Disqualify or Recuse Decide Gabriela Garcia could be considered here.
Melissa Lucio’s Movement to Disqualify the Cameron County District Lawyer could be considered right here: here.
Ms. Lucio’s Movement to Disqualify or Recuse Decide Garcia states that Decide Garcia’s court docket administrator, Irma Gilman, labored on Ms. Lucio’s protection when she was a paralegal for Ms. Lucio’s lead trial counsel, Peter Gilman, her husband. (Decide Movement at p. 1.) The movement states that Mrs. Gilman essentially realized confidential data whereas working as Mr. Gilman’s paralegal and that data, beneath Texas regulation, is imputed to Decide Garcia. (Decide Movement at p. 1.)
“Decide Garcia’s and D.A. Saenz’s roles on this case have the impact of obstructing Melissa Lucio’s entry to proof.”
Amongst different points, the movement states, “Mrs. Gilman’s work on Ms. Lucio’s protection made her acquainted with the information of protection counsel in Ms. Lucio’s trial. That data makes Mrs. Gilman an necessary witness for Ms. Lucio as she investigates and presents grounds” for additional litigation. (Decide Movement at p. 2.) If Ms. Lucio’s Movement to Disqualify or Recuse the Decide is granted, the choose will void the warrant for Ms. Lucio’s execution. (Decide Movement at pp. 7-8.)
In a separate movement, Ms. Lucio strikes to disqualify District Lawyer Saenz on the bottom that Peter Gilman, who was Ms. Lucio’s lead protection lawyer at her trial, now works for the District Lawyer and has since 2009. Mr. Gilman’s twin position as an assistant district lawyer and predecessor counsel for Ms. Lucio disqualifies the Cameron County District Lawyer’s Workplace. (D.A. Movement at p. 4.)
The Movement to Disqualify the Cameron County District Lawyer quotes the Texas Courtroom of Felony Appeals, “’If a prosecuting lawyer has previously represented the defendant within the ‘similar’ felony matter as that presently being prosecuted, he’s statutorily disqualified.’ This has been referred to as the ‘exhausting and quick rule of disqualification’ as a result of when [an attorney] switches sides ‘in the identical felony case [there] is an precise battle of curiosity [that] constitutes a due-process violation, even with no particular displaying of prejudice.’” (D.A. Movement at p. 4.)(citations omitted.)
’If a prosecuting lawyer has previously represented the defendant within the ‘similar’ felony matter as that presently being prosecuted, he’s statutorily disqualified.’
The foundations of authorized ethics additionally impose on Mr. Gilman an obligation to cooperate with Ms. Lucio’s new counsel, which incorporates reviewing Mr. Gilman’s information to find out whether or not the D.A.’s workplace violated Ms. Lucio’s proper to a good trial by suppressing proof of her innocence. Mr. Gilman has a battle of curiosity as a result of his present boss, D.A. Saenz, has pursued a coverage of non-cooperation with Ms. Lucio’s present counsel. (D.A. Movement at pp. 11-13.)
On February 8, 2022, Ms. Lucio filed a movement, which remains to be pending, to withdraw her execution date as a result of she is harmless, amongst different grounds. Ms. Lucio, a Mexican-American from the Rio Grande Valley, is on demise row regardless of forensic and eyewitness proof that her daughter died from a head damage after a fall. Mariah’s demise was a tragic accident, not a homicide.
On the time of her arrest, Ms. Lucio had no file of violence. 1000’s of pages of protecting service data and recorded interviews together with her kids present that Ms. Lucio was not abusive.
Hours after her daughter died, and whereas pregnant with twins, Ms. Lucio was subjected to a five-hour, late-night, rigorously orchestrated, and aggressive interrogation till, bodily and emotionally exhausted, she agreed to say, “I assume I did it.”
Missing any stable bodily proof or eyewitnesses, the prior District Lawyer, Armando Villalobos, characterised Ms. Lucio’s acquiescence as a “confession” and prosecuted her for capital homicide. D.A. Villalobos, who initially employed Peter Gilman, was corrupt: he’s now serving a 13-year federal jail sentence for bribery and extortion, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Justice.
Ms. Lucio suffered a lifetime of sexual abuse, beginning at simply six years outdated, and home violence, which made her particularly weak to the intimidating, coercive, and psychological interrogation techniques that resulted in a false confession. Of the 67 girls listed on the Nationwide Registry of Exonerations who have been exonerated after a homicide conviction, over one quarter (17/67) concerned false confessions and practically one third (20/67) concerned little one victims.