Melissa Lucio: Death Row; Texas: Major Development: In a rare show of solidarity among Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives in the Texas House, a bipartisan majority of lawmakers united Thursday to urge state officials to halt next month's execution of death row inmate Melissa Lucio, The Austin American-Statesman (Reporter Chuck Lindell) reports..."The legislators said they had serious questions about Lucio's guilt and concerns about the legal process that led to the Harlingen woman's 2008 conviction in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. "The system literally failed Melissa Lucio at every single turn," state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, said Thursday morning at a Capitol news conference. "As a conservative Republican myself, who has long been a supporter of the death penalty in the most heinous cases, I have never seen a more troubling case," he said. Leach said that 81 of the 150 members of the Texas House had signed a letter urging the Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency for Lucio — either by asking Gov. Greg Abbott to commute her sentence to a lighter penalty or delay her execution so new evidence in her case can be fully examined. By the time the news conference ended a half-hour later, Leach said six additional Republicans had sent text messages asking to join the letter."
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The support from lawmakers followed an extensiveclemency petition, submitted by defense lawyers to the parole board Tuesday, that argued new evidence shows Mariah was not murdered but instead died two days after an accidental fall down steep stairs caused unseen internal injuries. The petition cited nationally recognized scientists and forensic specialists who reviewed the evidence and concluded that prosecution experts were wrong when they testified that the child's bruises could only have been caused by physical abuse that occurred shortly before her death. The petition also quoted interrogation experts who said Lucio's confession was the unreliable product of aggressive police questioning during a five-hour interrogation that began the same day Mariah died and ended around 3 a.m. Defense lawyers also blamed her confession on pervasive domestic abuse and childhood sexual abuse that left Lucio vulnerable to coercive police tactics. At Thursday's news conference, Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, said Lucio was subject to "a lifetime of domestic abuse and trauma that numerous studies have confirmed makes her especially vulnerable to coercion and accepting blame for a crime she didn't commit."
STORY: "Bipartisan majority of Texas House urges clemency for death row inmate Melissa Lucio," by Reporter Chuck Lindell, published by The Austin American-Statesman, on March 24, 2022. (A reporter at the American-Statesman since 1991, Chuck Lindell covers legal issues, appeals courts and politics.)
GIST: "In a rare show of solidarity among Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives in the Texas House, a bipartisan majority of lawmakers united Thursday to urge state officials to halt next month's execution of death row inmate Melissa Lucio.
Two Blogs Now: The Charles Smith Blog; The Selfless Warriors Blog: I created the Charles Smith Blog in 2007 after I retired from The Toronto Star to permit me to keep digging into the story of the flawed pathologist and the harm he had done to so many innocent parents and caregivers, and to Ontario’s criminal justice system. Since then it has taken new directions, including examinations of other flawed pathologists, flawed pathology, and flawed science and technology which has marred the quality of justice in courtrooms around the world. The heart of the Blog is my approach to following cases which raise issues in all of these areas - especially those involving the death penalty. I have dedicated 'The Selfless Warrior Blog’ (soon to appear) to those exceptional individuals who have been ripped out of their ordinary lives by their inability to stand by in the face of a glaring miscarriage of justice. They are my ’Selfless Warriors.’ Enjoy!
