Bipartisan Texas State Senators Join State Representatives in Urging Board of Pardons & Paroles: Spare Melissa Lucio

Latest case update from April 12, 2024: The judge who presided over Melissa Lucio’s original trial, Judge Arturo Nelson recommended that that Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturn Ms. Lucio’s conviction and death sentence. That recommendation is now before the Court of Criminal Appeals, which in Texas, is the only court that can overturn a criminal conviction.

The article below was written in 2022:

A bipartisan group of lawmakers urged the Pardons and Parole Board to recommend granting clemency.

A bipartisan group, comprising the majority of members in the Texas Senate, have come forward, united, in support of clemency for Melissa Lucio, who is scheduled to be executed for a crime that never occurred on April 27, 2022. Twenty-one, including nine Republicans and twelve Democrats, of the 31 Texas state senators signed a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles asking to grant Ms. Lucio clemency, voicing the urgent need to stop this irreversible injustice.

These state senators join the more than 80 bipartisan state representatives, who recently sent a similar letter urging the same: “We, as members of the Texas Senate, urge you to recommend that Governor Abbott cancel Melissa Lucio’s execution by either commuting her sentence or granting her a reprieve. Ms. Lucio currently is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on April 27, 2022. New evidence that has emerged since Ms. Lucio’s trial points to the fact that her daughter, Mariah, died after a tragic accident and not by her mother’s hands. A commutation or a reprieve would give her lawyers the time they need to develop all the evidence that could
prove Ms. Lucio’s innocence.”

Read the senate letter here or below.