A bunch of bipartisan Texas politicians have visited a demise row inmate whose execution they're making an attempt to cease amid doubts about whether or not she fatally beat her two-year-old daughter.
State Reps. Jeff Leach, a Republican, and Joe Moody, a Democrat, led a bunch of politicians to the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas, the place the state homes girls on demise row.
Melissa Lucio faces execution on April 27.
"We're blessed to have the chance to satisfy with Melissa, to wish together with her, to spend time together with her and we're extra resolute and dedicated than ever to combating over the subsequent three weeks to avoid wasting her life," Mr Leach advised The Related Press in an interview after the assembly.
Ms Lucio was convicted of capital homicide for the 2007 demise of her daughter Mariah.
Prosecutors say Mariah was the sufferer of kid abuse and there's no proof that may acquit Ms Lucio of her daughter's demise.
However Ms Lucio's legal professionals say jurors by no means heard forensic proof that may have defined Mariah's numerous accidents have been really attributable to a fall days earlier than her demise.
Additionally they say Ms Lucio wasn't allowed to current proof questioning the validity of her confession, which they allege was not really a confession and was given beneath duress after hours of relentless questioning.
Amongst those that have doubts about Ms Lucio's guilt are a bipartisan group of 83 Texas Home members led by Mr Leach and Mr Moody.
They despatched the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott a letter final month asking them to grant an execution reprieve or commute her sentence. A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott's workplace didn't instantly return an e mail looking for remark.
Mr Leach mentioned he and 6 different lawmakers toured the jail for about two hours earlier than assembly privately with Ms Lucio for about 40 minutes. The assembly was first reported by The Quorum Report, which covers Texas politics.
The politicians inspired Lucio and talked together with her about their efforts to cease her execution, Mr Leach mentioned.
"It was only a candy, candy time collectively, very highly effective," Mr Leach mentioned.
After Wednesday's assembly, Mr Moody tweeted that, "She prayed with us & hugged us; right now could be the final real human contact she has earlier than the state kills her."
Efforts to cease Ms Lucio's execution have additionally acquired assist from actuality TV star Kim Kardashian West and from a number of jurors at her trial who at the moment are expressing doubts about her conviction.
In an op-ed revealed Sunday within the Houston Chronicle, juror Johnny Galvan Jr. mentioned he believes jurors weren't given all the data wanted to make a correct choice and he now feels "deep remorse" for sentencing Lucio to demise.
"The concept my choice to take one other individual's life was not primarily based on full and correct data in a good trial is horrifying. There are such a lot of issues on this case that I consider she should not be executed," Mr Galvan wrote.
In 2019, a three-judge panel of the fifth US Circuit Court docket of Appeals overturned Ms Lucio's conviction, ruling she was disadvantaged of "her constitutional proper to current a significant defence."
Nevertheless, the total courtroom in 2021 mentioned the conviction needed to be upheld for procedural causes.
Ms Lucio's attorneys had requested the appeals courtroom to recall its choice however the request was denied final week.
However in a footnote within the transient choice, fifth Circuit Choose Patrick Higginbotham known as Ms Lucio's case "a systemic failure, producing a practice of injustice which solely the hand of the Governor can halt."
Ms Lucio, 53, could be the primary Latina executed by Texas and the primary girl since 2014.
Solely 17 girls have been executed within the US because the Supreme Court docket lifted its ban on the demise penalty in 1976, most just lately in January 2021.