From David Mills on Facebook

MELISSA LUCIO HAS UNTIL APRIL 27TH

A sad post on this Easter Sunday, but the execution date for Melissa Lucio draws closer. Without a 30-day reprieve from Texas governor Abbot or a permanent one from the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, the state of Texas will kill her on April 27th.

The case against her is very bad. It is so bad that over half the state’s House of Representatives, including prominent Republicans, have asked Abbot and the Board to stop her execution. Over *half*. Including *Republicans*. For more details, see The Intercept’s story, “As execution looms, mounting evidence points to Marissa Lucio’s innocence.” Or the article on the Libertarian Reason.com titled “Texas Plans To Execute a Mom for Killing Her 2-Year-Old, but the Case Has Numerous Problems,” or my post of March 16th

Republican Rep. Jeff Leach, a leader of the group, has said the facts are “still in grave dispute,” and “The system literally failed Lucio at every single turn.” He — a Republican, not a liberal or a bleeding heart, as they used to be called — told a news station that there are “deep and substantive and substantial” problems with the way Texas imposes the death penalty. Lucio’s case is the “most shocking, the most problematic” example of this. “To say I’m wrestling with the very existence of the death penalty in Texas would be a dramatic understatement,” Leach said.

The state’s Catholic bishops have also asked for clemency. They oppose executing Melissa not just because they oppose the death penalty, but because “there is a strong case for her innocence.” See the Catholic News Service’s story “Texas Catholic bishops seek clemency for woman on death row” for the details.

We must pray for her and for the officials in whose hands her life rests. It does seem that some Texas officials have the ungodly — and I mean that literally — desire to see people die, even if they may be innocent. What else we can do I don’t know.

Texas Bishops Letter (txcatholic.org)

As the active Roman Catholic Bishops in Texas, we urge you to act in your respective
capacities to stop the impending execution of Melissa Lucio on April 27, 2022. We
call on Mr. Saenz to withdraw the execution date. We call on the board to grant a
stay of execution, and we call on Governor Abbott to affirm that stay and grant her
clemency for a meaningful review of her case.

We continue to pray for everyone who has been touched by the tragic loss of
Mariah’s life, especially for the suffering Ms. Lucio and her family have endured.
We are also fervently praying that clemency be granted to Ms. Lucio, not solely
because of the Church’s opposition to the death penalty and the inherent dignity of
every human life, but also due to the mitigating circumstances surrounding her
case.

Here is more about the case (at the end of the video) and other related issues from John Oliver

Warning: Language

STOP the Execution of Melissa Lucio | Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN) (catholicsmobilizing.org)

Send a message to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles advocating for clemency for Melissa Lucio.

The state of Texas plans to execute Melissa Lucio on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 for the 2007 death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez, despite strong forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts that Mariah’s death was accidental.

While Melissa’s family was moving into a new apartment, Mariah, who had a mild physical disability that made her unstable when walking, stumbled and fell down a steep set of exterior stairs.

Mere hours after her daughter’s tragic death, Melissa was subjected to a five-hour, late-night, carefully orchestrated, and aggressive interrogation until, physically and emotionally exhausted, she agreed to say, “I guess I did it.”

At the time of her arrest, Melissa Lucio had no record of violence. Thousands of pages of protective service records and recorded interviews with her children show that Ms. Lucio was not abusive with her children.

Please contact Gov. Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles NOW and urge them to stop the execution of a woman who may well be innocent.

FROM THE VATICAN

2267. Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”,^[1] and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide. New revision of number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty – Rescriptum “ex Audentia SS.mi” (vatican.va)