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Melissa Lucio’s execution is disabled. At the least, for now.
Lucio 52 was scheduled to die Wednesday after she inflicted deadly injections on her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. Harlingen is a metropolis of roughly 75,000 at Texas’ southern tip.
Monday’s intervention by the Texas Courtroom of Felony Appeals allowed Lucio’s attorneys to request a keep of execution. This may permit a decrease court docket to assessment claims that Mariah’s accidents, which included a blow within the head, had been on account of a fall down a steep stairway.
Practically half the jurors that sentenced her to loss of life for 2007 deaths of one in all her kids had requested for her execution to be stopped and for her to face a recent trial. Lucio has been supported by celebrities and lawmakers like Kim Kardashian, a proponent of legal justice reform and Amanda Knox, an American who was convicted within the homicide of a British scholar in Italy. Nonetheless, the prosecution maintains that the lady was a sufferer of kid abuse.
Lucio’s attorneys filed a number of authorized appeals to cease her execution. A clemency request was additionally filed earlier than the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. It was scheduled to listen to her case Monday. Republican Governor. Greg Abbott might have performed an element in Lucio’s destiny this week. Lucio, if she is executed, would develop into the primary Latina to be executed in Texas since 1863 and the primary lady to be killed by Texas .
Listed here are some info about this case:
WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS ABOUT?
Lucio’s attorneys declare that her capital homicide conviction was based mostly upon a coerced confession. This was her results of fixed questioning and her lengthy historical past sexual, bodily, and emotional abuse. Lucio was not allowed to current proof difficult her confession, they declare.
Her attorneys declare that jurors had been misled by unscientific and false info, believing Mariah’s accidents may solely have been brought on bodily abuse and never medical problems following a extreme fall.
“I knew I wasn’t doing what was being accused.” Lucio wrote a letter to Texas legislators, “My kids have at all times been my universe and though my decisions in my life weren’t nice I might by no means have damage any of them on this method.”
Luis Saenz from Cameron County, the prosecutor on this case, stated that he disagreed with Lucio’s attorneys’ declare that new proof would exonerate them. Prosecutors declare Lucio was a drug addict and had misplaced custody of a number of of her 14 kids.
In a heated Texas Home committee listening to this month on Lucio’s case, Saenz initially refused to train his energy to cease executions, however later acknowledged that he would intervene within the occasion the courts did not act.
“I don’t disagree with the quantity of scrutiny that this case is receiving. Saenz acknowledged, “I welcome that.”
Lucio was convicted by Armando Villalobos in 2008. His attorneys declare that Lucio pushed for the conviction to help his reelection bid. Villalobos was sentencedto 13 years in federal jail in 2014 for a scheme to bribe judges.
WHO CALLS FOR LUCIO’S EXECUTION to BE STOPPED?
Over half of Texas legislators have requested that her execution be stopped. A bipartisan group of Texas legislators visited Gatesville this month , the place feminine loss of life row inmates are saved, and prayed for Lucio.
5 of the twelve jurors that sentenced Lucio, together with one alternate juror, have questioned their choice. They requested for a brand new trial.
Lucio’s trigger has additionally been supported by religion leaders, and was featured on HBO’s Final Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Lucio’s household has been touring Texas together with her supporters and held rallies and screenings of “The State of Texas in opposition to Melissa” 2020 documentary.
Lucio’s supporters held an Austin prayer vigil earlier than Monday’s court docket choice. They waited to listen to from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles about her clemency request. Supporters held rallies throughout 16 U.S. places, together with Houston, Boston and Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday.
WHERE CAN EFFORTS TO HALT HIM EXECUTION STAND
Monday’s listening to on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was scheduled to listen to a request for a request to commute Lucio’s loss of life sentence to life imprisonment, or to grant her a 120-day reprieve from execution. Nonetheless, that listening to was pushed again by an appeals court docket order. Lucio had an enchantment in federal court docket pending to cease her execution. Because the case proceeds to Brownsville’s trial choose, the federal enchantment and the petition for clemency at the moment are overruled.
It wasn’t instantly clear when the decrease court docket would begin reviewing her case. Tivon Schardl was one in all Lucio’s attorneys. They hope to persuade her trial choose to grant her a recent trial.
Abbott would have needed to approve if the board had thought of her case and really useful commutation or reprieve. Since taking workplace in 2015, the governor has granted clemency solely to one loss of life row prisoner. Thomas “Bart” Whitaker was convicted of taking pictures his mom and brother. Whitaker’s father, Whitaker, was additionally shot however survived the assault and led the trouble for his son’s security.
WHAT % WOMEN ARE EXECUTED RESPONSIBLY?
In line with the Washington-based Dying Penalty Info Heart (a non-profit that doesn’t take stance on capital punishment, however has criticised the way through which executions are carried out, it’s very uncommon within the U.S. In line with information from the group, girls account for simply 3.6% of greater than 16,000 executions within the U.S. for the reason that colonial interval in 1600s.
In line with information, 17 girls had been executed throughout the nation since 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Courtroom reinstated loss of life penalty. Six girls have been executed in Texas, greater than another state. Oklahoma, which has three executions, is subsequent. Florida, nevertheless, has two.
Since 1976, one lady has been executed by the federal authorities. Lisa Montgomery of Kansas obtained a deadly injection on January 20, 2021, after the Trump administration resumed executions throughout the federal system after a 17-year break. Underneath the Biden administration, executions had been stopped by the Justice Division.
