{"id":583458,"date":"2022-03-31T19:49:43","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T19:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innocenceproject.org\/?p=41141"},"modified":"2022-03-31T19:49:43","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T19:49:43","slug":"83-texas-state-representatives-urge-board-of-pardons-paroles-spare-melissa-lucio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/03\/31\/83-texas-state-representatives-urge-board-of-pardons-paroles-spare-melissa-lucio\/","title":{"rendered":"83 Texas State Representatives Urge Board of Pardons & Paroles: Spare Melissa Lucio"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bipartisan group, comprising the majority of members in the Texas House of Representatives, have come forward, united, in support of clemency for Melissa Lucio, who is scheduled to be executed for a crime that never occurred on April 27, 2022. Eighty-three Texas representatives signed a letter<\/a> to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles asking to grant Ms. Lucio clemency. Last week, they held a press conference to further voice the urgent need to stop this irreversible injustice.<\/p>\n

At the press conference on March 24, state representative Jeff Leach (R-Plano), co-chair of the House\u2019s bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, stated, “The system literally failed Melissa Lucio at every single turn. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the press release issued by the coalition of lawmakers below.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

83 Texas State Representatives Urge Board of Pardons & Paroles: Spare Melissa Lucio<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

(March 28, 2022 \u2014 Austin, TX) A bipartisan group of Texas legislators led by Representatives Jeff Leach (R\u2013Plano) and Joe Moody (D\u2013El Paso) held a press conference on March 24, 2022, at the Capitol urging clemency or a reprieve for Melissa Lucio, who is scheduled for execution on April 27, 2022. Leach and Moody co-chair the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus and were recently appointed chair and vice chair of the Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Reform by Speaker Dade Phelan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s simply too much doubt about whether Melissa Lucio is guilty, or even whether a crime occurred in the first place,\u201d Leach said. \u201cShe was convicted based on discredited forensics and the testimony of a medical examiner who didn\u2019t follow protocol and put another innocent person in prison just two months after Melissa.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Moody highlighted Lucio\u2019s religious conversion. \u201cIt\u2019s always important to balance justice with mercy. As a practicing Catholic, I know how powerful a turn to faith can be, and whoever Melissa was when she entered our system, her devotion and ministry make it clear that she\u2019s now a different person who\u2019s earned a measure of grace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t have any confidence in how this investigation unfolded,\u201d said Texas House Dean Senfronia Thompson (D\u2013Houston), \u201cMelissa\u2019s so-called confession came after more than five hours of brutal interrogation of a woman whose history shows she\u2019s vulnerable to giving the kinds of false confessions we see in a third of all wrongful convictions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be listening to the family of the deceased here,\u201d Rafael Anch\u00eda (D\u2013Dallas) argued. \u201cThis was a tragedy, but those people who the State of Texas is supposed to be seeking justice for are all telling us that executing Melissa will just further traumatize them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

James White (R\u2013Hillister) focused on the poor representation Lucio received. \u201cEveryone has a right to a competent defense in our state. Melissa didn\u2019t get that. When you have lawyers handling a capital murder who haven\u2019t even tried a criminal case before, that\u2019s a problem, so it\u2019s no surprise that many of our Fifth Circuit\u2019s judges found she didn\u2019t get a fair trial.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole system failed Melissa every step of the way,\u201d said Lacey Hull (R\u2013Houston). \u201cCPS didn\u2019t adequately intervene after numerous reports Melissa was being abused by her husband, a corrupt DA who\u2019s now in prison pushed this prosecution for pollical reasons, and Melissa\u2019s husband, who had a violent history, got only four years in prison while she got a death sentence. What happened here is wrong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of these House members were among the 83 Texas legislators who signed on to a letter last week urging the Board of Pardons and Paroles to act. The initial recommendation for clemency will be in the hands of the board but must then be approved by the governor.<\/span><\/p>\n

The post 83 Texas State Representatives Urge Board of Pardons & Paroles: Spare Melissa Lucio<\/a> appeared first on Innocence Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Innocence Project<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bipartisan group, comprising the majority of members in the Texas House of Representatives, have come forward, united, in support of clemency for Melissa Lucio, who is scheduled to be executed for a crime<\/p>\n

The post 83 Texas State Representatives Urge Board of Pardons & Paroles: Spare Melissa Lucio<\/a> appeared first on Innocence Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41954,4,529,876,6480],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583466,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583458\/revisions\/583466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}