Bipartisan majority of Texas House urges clemency for death row inmate Melissa Lucio

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 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.

The support from lawmakers followed an extensive clemency 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."

Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, said she decided to fight for Lucio's life as a legislator who is "pro-life, pro-woman and pro-law and order."

"As much as we all want justice for Mariah, the facts simply do not support any conclusion that Miss Lucio committed capital murder and is deserving of the ultimate punishment," Hull said. "We policymakers have an obligation and opportunity to speak out when there is injustice. Here, in the case of Melissa Lucio, there is clear injustice."

Lucio's execution is set for April 27.

Under state law, the governor can commute a death sentence or grant a reprieve that is recommended by the parole board. Abbott also can issue a 30-day reprieve on his own.

Source: statesman.com, Chuck Lindell, March 25, 2022

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