AUSTIN (Nexstar) — With solely three days left till Melissa Lucio’s execution, set for Wednesday, April 27, rallies on the Texas Capitol continued Sunday to garner state officers’ consideration to cease it.
Lucio was convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter Mariah in Harlingen 15 years in the past.
Her attorneys now level to new proof, exhibiting that Mariah’s accidents have been attributable to a fall down a steep staircase. They additionally declare Lucio could have been coerced by regulation enforcement into confessing to the homicide on the day of her daughter’s dying.
Since the conviction, 5 of the 12 jurors have publicly said if they’d recognized in regards to the new proof, they might not have sentenced her to dying.
With three days left, Tivon Schardl, the Supervisory Federal Public Defender in Austin who’s representing Lucio, sat down with KXAN to focus on how the state may step in to both fully halt, or delay, the execution Wednesday.
What’s the authorized newest on Melissa Lucio?
This Q&A has been edited for size and readability.
Q: Where do issues stand legally heading into this week, with each the request for clemency and a number of other filings in the courtroom of appeals?
A: The present state of affairs is that the Board of Pardons and Paroles is contemplating a clemency petition on behalf of Melissa Lucio that’s supported by a supermajority of each the House and the Senate in the Texas Legislature, in addition to tons of of anti-domestic violence teams, and non secular organizations and tens of hundreds, if not tons of of hundreds of Texans. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has earlier than it, a number of filings on behalf of Melissa Lucio, most of them haven’t been responded to by the state. So there’s no opposition from the state to these filings that search a keep of execution and in the end to get a brand new trial for Melissa Lucio. Also, the Federal Court of Appeals, the Fifth Circuit has earlier than it, a movement for a keep of execution as nicely.
Q: With that being mentioned, stroll us by the probabilities of what may occur this week.
A: We will hear from the Board of Pardons and Paroles [Monday] afternoon. That’s their regular means of doing enterprise. They challenge their outcomes two days earlier than the scheduled execution date. Then, after all, it’s up to the governor whether or not he’s going to settle for that advice or not. Or if the advice is in opposition to clemency, to grant a reprieve, which he has the facility to do no matter what the board decides. In phrases of the courts, we can count on to hear from them at any time. There’s actually no means to predict once they’re going to rule.
Q: Earlier this month, state lawmakers grilled District Attorney Luis Saenz to withdraw the warrant for the execution, however he refused on the time. Does he at the moment have the facility to revoke the warrant?
A: Yes, the district lawyer has had the facility all alongside to seek the advice of with counsel earlier than searching for an execution date. And there’s been a movement pending in the trial courtroom since February to withdraw the execution date or to rethink setting it. And the district lawyer has been in a position to be part of that movement… to say he doesn’t oppose that movement for months now.
Q: In your opinion, what’s the most effective case state of affairs this week?
A: I believe the best-case state of affairs could be for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to keep the execution and ship the case again to the trial courtroom to think about whether or not Melissa Lucio ought to get a brand new trial.
Q: Is there any means to evaluate this to every other dying row circumstances in latest historical past?
A: There hasn’t been a case like this in latest Texas historical past that I’m aware of. And I’ve been engaged on these circumstances right here — on and off for 26 years. There hasn’t been a case the place a supermajority of the Texas Legislature is supporting a cease to the execution. There hasn’t been a case the place tons of of hundreds of individuals have been calling, emailing, tweeting to the district lawyer and the governor to cease the execution. This is a very extraordinary case. Now, you can evaluate it favorably to different circumstances in which the governor granted clemency. For instance, in the Bart Whitaker case, Governor Abbott commuted his sentence to life, in half as a result of the sufferer’s household who have been additionally Mr. Whitaker’s household, supported clemency. That’s the identical right here. In different circumstances the place there was highly effective proof of innocence, governors, together with Gov. Bush and Gov. Perry, have stopped executions. So that’s comparable.
Q: How is Melissa’s household holding up whereas they anticipate a solution?
A: It’s torture for them. It is absolute torture. And I believe the people who find themselves following John Lucio and Michelle Lucio on social media, they see the agony that this household goes by, as a result of public officers don’t converse up and simply make the correct choice about this harmless lady dealing with execution in what, three, 4 days. They have been simply going by hell and the state of Texas is placing them by hell, and there’s no purpose for it.