Prosecutor withheld evidence of her innocence, convicted her, and sentenced her to die

April 14, 2024 GlenAnderson Criminal Justice (Also see Death Penalty), Death Penalty (Also see Criminal Justice), Examples of Parallax Views, Governmental Abuses, Human Rights, Judicial and Constitutional 0

I have been studying the death penalty extensively since 1987.  Over and over again, we see that PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS are NOT seeking truth or justice.  THEY JUST WANT TO WIN, so they commit cruel acts, such as suppressing evidence that the defendant is INNOCENT.

Here is yet another case of this.  It came from www.deathpenaltyaction.org

 

April 25, 2024 will be two years since the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Melissa Lucio’s execution date and ordered an evidentiary hearing. Why has the evidentiary hearing not been held? We know why. There was never a murder, so they have no evidence to show!

The official silence has ended.

Late yesterday, the news broke:

NUTSHELL – The local judge and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals still need to sign off, but the District Attorney is acknowledging that exculpatory evidence was withheld from her defense, and Melissa should prevail. Our statement:

We look forward to Melissa Lucio coming home to freedom and urge that the process be expedited. Melissa Lucio should not spend another night behind bars.

We are grateful that the Cameron County DA finally did what he could have and should have done two years ago, which is to acknowledge that exculpatory evidence was withheld from Melissa Lucio by Armando Viallobos, the discredited former prosecutor of Cameron County.

 

We recognize that this acknowledgment awaits a sign-off from the local court in Cameron County and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which may take some time. That does not change the fact that we have known that no crime occurred and that Melissa Lucio remains on death row for a murder that never happened.

 

We applaud Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, the hard working attorneys at the Innocence Project and everyone else who had a role in preventing Melissa’s execution in 2022, and who continue to work toward the day that Melissa walks free.

 

It must be acknowledged that without the film made by Sabrina Van Tassel, “The State of Texas vs. Melissa,” the spotlight on this case which generated tremendous public pressure in the days leading to Melissa’s April 27, 2022 execution date would never have been bright enough to halt the execution.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Please stay tuned for new opportunities for action to help #FreeMelissaLucio!

 

 

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1515 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org