PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The truth is, the deck is stacked against women like us. Women who are poor, isolated. Women of color. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can put a stop to Melissa’s execution. It’s the right thing to do. There is still time to avoid making this horrifying mistake."
So please, take a moment to sign the petition calling on Texas to stop the execution of Melissa Lucio or text SAVEMELISSA to 97016 to see how you can get involved.
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POST: The Innocence Project: April 6, 2022.
GIST: "I’ve never met Melissa Lucio, but we have a lot in common. Both of us lost our babies. Both of us were hauled into police interrogations mere hours after their deaths, still numb and in shock. Both of us were coerced, convicted of murder, and sentenced to die for killing our children — something we didn’t do.
The difference between Melissa and me, is that I was lucky enough to get a new trial. My attorneys were able to show that my 9-month-old son, Walter, died from a hereditary kidney condition. There was no murder, and after six and a half years in prison, I was cleared of any wrongdoing.
But Melissa has been on death row in Texas for 14 years, and unless she is granted clemency by the governor, she will be executed on April 27 for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter — a crime that never actually occurred.
The Innocence Project is fighting to stop that from happening.
Melissa’s daughter, Mariah, died two days after tragically falling down a flight of stairs at their home while in the process of moving.
Until you have walked in our shoes, there is no way to know how you would react after losing a child — or how you would react to being accused of killing them. For me, it was an out-of-body experience. After four hours of being berated while trapped in an interrogation room, I just wanted them to stop. I was tired. I was broken. Finally, an officer handed me a statement that said I had hit my baby and that’s what killed him. I resisted in the only way I could. I signed my name in the wrong place on the confession.
The police also used these same coercive interrogation tactics on Melissa. They took her into custody on the night her daughter died and aggressively questioned her for hours. Melissa, who was pregnant with twins at the time, asserted her innocence more than 100 times. But after more than five hours of unrelenting, hostile questioning, she told officers, “I guess I did it.”
As her clemency application states, Melissa has a low IQ, struggled with addiction and poverty, and is a survivor of child sexual abuse and domestic violence. Two nationally recognized experts in false confessions who reviewed Melissa’s case have said that her cognitive impairments and history of trauma made her especially vulnerable to manipulative, intimidating interrogation techniques.
I pray that Melissa lives. I pray that she can be with her children and grandchildren again. And I hope that she will get the opportunity to tell her story in her own words like I did.
The truth is, the deck is stacked against women like us. Women who are poor, isolated. Women of color. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can put a stop to Melissa’s execution. It’s the right thing to do. There is still time to avoid making this horrifying mistake.
Thank you so much,
Sabrina Butler-Smith
Exonerated in 1995
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGmvnzQZGdKqLCxNBPWBrFLKTMQ
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: (National Registry of Exonerations: Sabrina Butler):
"Butler later described her interrogation by a detective. “I was alone with no lawyer or parent with me. I told him I tried to save my baby. He wrote down what I said and threw it in the garbage. He yelled at me for three hours. No matter what I said, he screamed over and over that I had killed my baby. I was terrified. I was put in jail and not allowed to attend Walter’s funeral." “I was a teenager who, less than 24 hours before, had lost my precious baby boy. Ambitious men questioned, demoralized and intimidated me. In that state of mind, I signed the lies they wrote on a piece of paper. I signed my name in tiny letters in the margin to show some form of resistance to the power they had over me.”
Read Sabrina Butler's National Registry of Exonerations entry by Maurice Possley, last updated on August 21, 2019, at the link below: Contributing factors: False confessions; False or misleading forensic science; Official misconduct.
Butler later described her interrogation by a detective.
“I was alone with no lawyer or parent with me. I told him I tried to save my baby. He wrote down what I said and threw it in the garbage. He yelled at me for three hours. No matter what I said, he screamed over and over that I had killed my baby. I was terrified. I was put in jail and not allowed to attend Walter’s funeral."
“I was a teenager who, less than 24 hours before, had lost my precious baby boy. Ambitious men questioned, demoralized and intimidated me. In that state of mind, I signed the lies they wrote on a piece of paper. I signed my name in tiny letters in the margin to show some form of resistance to the power they had over me.”
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
