Texas lawmakers push prosecutor to halt Melissa Lucio execution
Cameron County’s top prosecutor, pressed regularly by condition lawmakers to delay death row inmate Melissa Lucio’s looming execution, pushed back again during a Tuesday listening to at the Texas Capitol, saying he questioned claims that Lucio was harmless.
District Attorney Luis Saenz also insisted that any delay to Lucio’s April 27 execution would have to be decided by the courts, the place several late legal issues keep on being to enjoy out.
“I stand by my responsibility until eventually I am informed or else by some courtroom that could nevertheless problem a continue to be,” he explained.
Extra:Bipartisan the vast majority of Texas Household urges clemency for demise row inmate Melissa Lucio
But after two hours of from time to time confrontational questioning by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Saenz appeared to relent towards the end of his testimony at the committee listening to, saying he will shift to hold off Lucio’s execution if the courts drop to step in or the Board of Pardons and Paroles rejects calls for clemency.
“If Melissa does not get a continue to be by a certain day, then I will do what I have to do and cease it,” Saenz, who testified remotely, told the House Interim Research Committee on Criminal Justice Reform.
Condition Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen and chairman of the committee, vowed to hold Saenz to that promise — notably immediately after the district attorney used most of the listening to rejecting phone calls for a hold off.
“We are going to come across a way to keep you accountable for that. I trust what you might be indicating. I have no other alternative now, in this minute, to rely on what you are stating,” mentioned Leach, who has emerged as one particular of Lucio’s most vocal advocates.
Previous demo jurors urge execution delay
Leach and the committee’s vice chairman, Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, ended up among a bipartisan team of 83 Texas Dwelling customers who past month signed a letter urging Gov. Greg Abbott and the parole board to hold off Lucio’s execution so new evidence could be reviewed that elevated doubts about no matter whether the Harlingen girl killed her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, in 2007.
The letter was despatched shortly after Lucio’s attorneys submitted an considerable clemency petition arguing that Mariah was not murdered but as a substitute died two times just after an accidental tumble down steep stairs brought on unseen interior injuries.
The petition cited nationally identified researchers and forensic professionals who reviewed the proof and concluded that prosecution gurus have been incorrect when they testified that the child’s bruises could only have been brought on by actual physical abuse that happened shortly ahead of her loss of life.
Protection attorneys also blamed her confession on pervasive domestic abuse and childhood sexual abuse that remaining Lucio susceptible to coercive police methods.
The petition also involved statements from four jurors who sentenced Lucio to dying in 2008 but now assist clemency, declaring the new details elevated significant thoughts about her guilt.
On Tuesday, Lucio supporters filed an updated clemency software that incorporated aid from a fifth juror, the foreperson, Melissa Quintanilla.
“I was disheartened to study that there was additional proof that was not presented at demo,” Quintanilla stated. “I imagine that Ms. Lucio warrants a new demo and for a new jury to listen to this proof.”
Tuesday’s Capitol hearing also listened to testimony from an additional juror, Johnny Galvan of Brownsville, who claimed “there is far too considerably question” to go ahead with Lucio’s execution.
“The thought that my conclusion to take a further person’s life was not based on total and exact information and facts in a good demo is horrifying,” Galvan stated in a statement read by his daughter as he stood close by in the Capitol listening to area.
Quite a few lawmakers on the committee pressed Saenz to acknowledge the alter of heart by jurors, but the prosecutor stated his business contacted 6 other jurors who stood by their verdict, though the past remaining juror has because died, he claimed.
“It really is not uncommon for jurors to alter their head,” Saenz stated. “It’s just human mother nature. It is really just what what they call buyer’s remorse.”
Prosecutor inquiries ‘so-identified as experts’
Saenz stated his office was examining the statements put ahead in Lucio’s clemency petition but also explained he disagreed with conclusions of innocence dependent on new “so-referred to as industry experts,” the concept that the baby was wounded in a drop and the idea that Lucio’s confession was coerced.
Nevertheless, Saenz expressed self-confidence that the courts will delay Lucio’s execution, noting that much more than a dozen authorized issues continue being, like a request for a remain of execution that is pending at the Texas Court docket of Felony Appeals and numerous other troubles that are awaiting motion in the federal courts.
This kind of a circumstance typically leads to a court docket-requested hold off to enable all difficulties to be settled, he stated.
“I hope you might be right,” Leach said. “I pray you’re correct.”
Leach also pressed Saenz to immediately delay the execution in its place of ready for the courts to act.
“Washing your palms of your capacity to make this choice yourself, to me, is incredibly, quite surprising and disappointing,” Leach said. “I would just beg you, urge you on behalf of Melissa and her attorneys, but (also) the Legislature and the curiosity of justice, to say what harm does it do to push the pause button?”
What would transpire if Lucio have been to be executed “and we discover out later that, wow, she was harmless,” Leach mentioned.
“I think, with all respect, that is the place you happen to be erroneous,” Saenz replied. “Because this circumstance is still remaining litigated. We may possibly nonetheless have the choice that you might be waiting around for. But for me to sit below unilaterally and just pull the plug on it, then what do I say to the other 195 weak souls who are on dying row right now who, by the way, are also innocent?”
Many in the viewers, which was crammed with Lucio supporters, like her oldest son, John Lucio, reacted angrily, and Leach cautioned them that outbursts would not be permitted.
