PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "This is good news for Melissa Lucio, but only in contrast to the bad news she’s been living through since 2007 — for almost 17 long unimaginable years — all of it imposed on her by agents of the state. Starting just two hours after she’d lost a child and continuing without stop since then. And worst of all, mostly imposed by supposed agents of justice, some of whom clearly didn’t give a rat’s behind for justice. "
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COMMENTARY: "The state of Texas almost killed an innocent woman," by David Mills, published by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on April 18, 2024. (David Mills is the deputy editorial page editor and a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette);
GIST: "Only two years ago, Melissa Lucio was just two days from certain death.
She’d been convicted of murdering her two-year-old daughter in 2008 and exhausted her appeals, every court in the long process approving the decision of the court that convicted her. She remained in prison the entire time.
And — you will have seen this coming — she was almost certainly innocent, and that was clear at the time to anyone who actually looked.
But large systems like the justice system protect themselves, especially from the damage the system would suffer from admitting it had been that wrong.
And the individuals who went wrong, either by accident or purpose, won’t admit it unless forced. The first has a narrative to maintain, the second reputations to maintain, and sometimes prison sentences to avoid.
A victim of justice [sic]
The justice system of the state of Texas has finally admitted it was wrong — pending the agreement of the body with the final authority, and from what I can tell it’s expected to agree but not certain to.
But the whole story, and it’s not an uncommon one in America, should disconcert those of us who aren’t likely ever to be in Ms. Lucio’s place.
This is good news for Melissa Lucio, but only in contrast to the bad news she’s been living through since 2007 — for almost 17 long unimaginable years — all of it imposed on her by agents of the state. Starting just two hours after she’d lost a child and continuing without stop since then. And worst of all, mostly imposed by supposed agents of justice, some of whom clearly didn’t give a rat’s behind for justice.
The state of Texas was going to execute Melissa Lucio on April 27, 2022, based on a confession coerced by the police, using dirty tricks and intimidation; prosecution by a corrupt prosecutor running for reelection (he’s now in prison); when she was defended by an incompetent defense lawyer; when she faced a prosecution aided by testimony from a forensic expert who was full of crap, who claimed with an expert’s authority facts that were not true, and known not to be true by other experts.
And that was not all the legal abuse she suffered. She was going to be killed after a trial in which the abundance of evidence of how much she loved her children was never presented in court, letting the prosecution (who must have known better) portray her as a bad and abusive mother (there was no evidence whatsoever that she ever abused her children, but the jury was not told that).
Within two days
And there’s still more. She came within two days of being executed thanks in part to a judge who prevented testimony in her favor, particularly expert testimony on how the extreme abuse she had suffered throughout her life left her very vulnerable to coercion; and who nevertheless allowed the Texas ranger who interrogated her, also full of crap, and covering his backside, to claim that he knew, as an experienced lawman, that she was guilty from the way she sat. And on top of that, she would have gotten another trial but for a legal technicality.
You can read a ten-point summary of the miscarriage of justice in a post by the invaluable Innocence Project here. It did seem then that some Texas officials had the ungodly — and I mean that literally — desire to see people die, even if they might be innocent.
Of course, there were many good guys fighting for Ms. Lucio, and good guys you might not expect. Republican Rep. Jeff Leach said the facts were “still in grave dispute” — as in not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, as in not nearly enough to convict a woman and send her to death row — and noted that “the system literally failed Lucio at every single turn."
He, a Republican, and not a liberal one, said there are “deep and substantive and substantial” problems with the way Texas imposes the death penalty. Ms. Lucio’s case was the “most shocking, the most problematic” example of this.
The good guys prevailed with two days left, but it was very close.
Heart-breaking but possible
Ms. Lucio’s story was heart-breaking, and it was heart-breaking before the state of Texas came after her. She has been suffering the effects of the state’s gross injustice for 17 years. Think back to what you were doing in 2007, and then think of everything you’ve done, and especially you’ve enjoyed, since. In particular, every simple exercise of your freedom, even it was just to take walks around the block or go to bed when you wanted.
And think, if you have children, of not being able to be a father or a mother to them for all that time. The pain of that is unimaginable.
And imagine being someone to whom that could happen, and what that requires of those of us the state will never treat the way it treated Melissa Lucio."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
————————————————————————————
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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