Alicia Maule
Earlier this week, a gaggle of Texas lawmakers from throughout the political spectrum visited Melissa Lucio in jail, the place she is on dying row and is scheduled to be executed on April 27.
Co-Chairs of the Texas Home’s bipartisan Felony Justice Reform Caucus, Reps. Jeff Leach (R) and Joe Moody (D) led fellow representatives Lacey Hull, Victoria Criado, Rafael Anchia, Toni Rose, and James White to the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, the place the state homes ladies on dying row.
“We’re blessed to have the chance to fulfill with Melissa, to wish together with her, to spend time together with her and we’re extra resolute and dedicated than ever to preventing over the subsequent three weeks to save lots of her life,” stated Rep. Leach.
Grateful for my colleagues @LaceyHullTx @RafaelAnchia @James_E_White @Victoria4Texas @RepToniRoseTX @moodyforelpaso – and plenty of extra – for his or her tireless work on behalf of #MelissaLucio. It is a battle value preventing collectively! #txlege https://t.co/rR2N8UV3MM pic.twitter.com/Ooq5PdreP4
— Jeff Leach (@leachfortexas) April 7, 2022
Add your name to stop Melissa’s execution.
Ms. Lucio was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to dying after her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, died in 2007 following an unintentional fall down a staircase when the household was shifting houses.
Ms. Lucio was instantly taken into custody by the police and aggressively questioned for hours. Though she asserted her innocence greater than 100 occasions, police interrogated her for 5 hours two hours after her daughter died. Round 3 a.m., Ms. Lucio, exhausted and in shock from the lack of her little one, agreed, falsely, to take accountability for a few of Mariah’s accidents. Ms. Lucio, a life-long survivor of abuse, succumbed to the detectives’ calls for to deliver the nightmarish interrogation to an finish.
The abuse Ms. Lucio suffered all through her life made her particularly weak to the police’s coercive interrogation techniques. However her protection was not allowed to current any of this proof at trial. Her lawyer did not mount a correct protection or current proof pointing to her innocence.
3 weeks in the past I watched #MelissaLucio on television, moved by her story. Right this moment, 6 different reps and I met her in particular person. She prayed with us & hugged us; right this moment is perhaps the final real human contact she has earlier than the state kills her. Three extra weeks is all now we have to save lots of her life. #txlege pic.twitter.com/NQJ4ZBiu7M
— Joe Moody (@moodyforelpaso) April 6, 2022
Call Gov. Abbott today and ask him to grant Melissa clemency today.
There are such a lot of doubts round Ms. Lucio’s case, and others are beginning to take notice. Final month, a bipartisan group of 83 Texas Home members, spearheaded by Rep. Leach and Rep. Moody, despatched the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott a letter asking them to cease the execution of Ms. Lucio by granting her a reprieve or commuting her sentence. Johnny Galvan Jr., a juror in Ms. Lucio’s trial, expressed his remorse for voting for Ms. Lucio to obtain the dying sentence in a Houston Chronicle op-ed revealed on April 3.
The seven Texas lawmakers toured the jail after which met with Ms. Lucio for 40 minutes the place all of them got here collectively and prayed. In a tweet, Rep. Moody stated, “She prayed with us & hugged us; right this moment is perhaps the final real human contact she has earlier than the state kills her.”