AUSTIN, Texas — House members pressed hard Tuesday for Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz to attempt to pause the imminent execution of Death Row inmate Melissa Lucio. Saenz barely bent.
Members of the Texas House have opinions on policy issues. They express those opinions during hearings. But rarely have those members advocated as strongly as they did Tuesday for a separate branch of government – in this case, the judicial branch – to intervene in a criminal conviction.
Lucio, a mother of 14 children from Cameron County, is the rare woman on Texas Death Row, convicted of the 2007 murder of her toddler daughter Mariah. Today, Lucio’s children, many of them now adults, insist Lucio is not a murderer and Mariah’s death was an accident.
House members visited Lucio on Death Row last week. The leanings of the panel – an interim committee on criminal justice reform – was clear as the interim hearing opened with testimony from Johnny Galvan, one of what is now five jurors in the Lucio conviction who say they would not have sentenced Lucio to Death Row if they had known all the details now known.
Vice Chair Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, was emotional in his opening remarks. Moody, a onetime El Paso County prosecutor, said he couldn’t get one thought out of his mind.
“I can’t start this process without telling you what’s on my heart, which is one week ago, I got to hug Melissa Lucio. And this morning, I got to hug her son John,” Moody said. “It is not lost on me that that’s something he doesn’t get to do. And in fact, if the state goes forward with killing her – and let’s not mince words, that’s what it is – he will not get to do that again.”
Saenz, elected district attorney in Cameron County in 2013, was the primary witness at Tuesday’s hearing. He did not fold under obvious pressure from various committee members to consider efforts to pause the execution, which is scheduled for April 27. Whatever happens in the Lucio case needs to move through the court system and not through hearsay, Saenz said.
“I can tell you that the state of Texas has no higher priority than to ensure that a death penalty conviction and death sentence is carried out legally and correctly,” Saenz said. “To that end, we strictly adhere to the rule of law, which sets out the state and federal appeals procedure.”
A number of options still exist for the Lucio case. The Board of Pardons and Paroles could grant a plea from Lucio’s lawyers for clemency, which would then be forwarded to Gov. Greg Abbott. He could rule up or down on that decision, or he could ask for a 30-day delay in Lucio’s execution.
The Court of Criminal Appeals could act on a number of petitions which are still pending before the court. Or the U.S. Supreme Court could act to intervene in the execution.
Then, in a fourth option, Saenz could pull his warrant for the death penalty. Lawmakers on the committee considered this a viable option; Saenz was less sure, pointing to multiple opinions in the Lucio case that have continued to uphold Lucio’s death conviction.
“This case is still being litigated. We may still have the decision that you’re waiting for,” said Saenz, who testified remotely. “But for me to sit here unilaterally and pull the plug on it – what do I say to the other 195 poor souls that are on Death Row right now who also claim they are innocent?”
Subsequent testimony from the Texas District and County Attorneys Association supported Saenz’s view that his intervention would be nothing more than advisory.
Lawmakers have skirted whether they wanted to declare, outright, Lucio innocent of her daughter’s death. Instead, they have criticized the process that led to Lucio’s conviction, including a coerced, sleep-deprived confession from Lucio on the day her daughter died.
At one point in the hearing, Saenz said he had not come to the same conclusion as the House members, given the evidence he and his office had reviewed.
“I’m not here to win cases,” Saenz told the committee. “I’m here to do justice.”
Saenz agreed he would pull his warrant closer to the date of the execution if he didn’t consider all options and appeals to be exercised in the Lucio case.