The tragic story of Melissa Lucio is covered in today’s “This Week in the War on Women” diary, and there has been a critical new development, as of Tuesday 3/22:
So, if you live in Texas-
- Please call Gov. Abbott, requesting that he grant her clemency.
- Please call D.A. Saenz, requesting that he withdraw the April 27 execution.
If you (like myself) do not live in Texas- then please consider the following action, requested on this page:
I am reaching out to you today for help in fighting for justice for Melissa Lucio. Melissa Lucio is an innocent woman who is scheduled for execution on April 27th. Her official clemency petition was submitted on March 22, 2022. We are asking people to write letters of support for Melissa’s clemency application to be mailed so that the materials are received prior to April 18th, the deadline for public commentary.
Please pass this information around to your networks, and ask that people please write a hand-written (or typed and signed) letter on behalf of Melissa. Additionally, please consider hosting a letter-writing night with your friends or organization members to ask the members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant her clemency.
So if I may consider y’all to be in my “network”, then perhaps tonight can be our “letter-writing night”, for Melissa Lucio (although I’ve already written & mailed my letters…)
This page is requesting that two letters be sent- one letter to 1 of the 7 Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles offices, and the other letter to the BPP central office (sample letters, and the addresses for all these offices, are all provided on this page.) Below is the text of my letter:
I am writing today as a concerned citizen, to ask that you please grant clemency to Melissa Lucio (#00999537). Melissa’s daughter Mariah lived with a mild physical disability which affected her stability in walking. In 2007, Mariah fell down the stairs and suffered from a head injury that proved fatal two days later. When she was arrested, Melissa had no record of violence. Protective service records and her children testify to the fact that she was a loving and caring mother. After five hours of interrogation, Melissa was coerced by the police into weakly saying “I guess I did it,” which was twisted into a confession despite no physical evidence. Furthermore, the jury did not hear Melissa’s defense or explanation. Melissa is innocent, but she sits on death row, despite eyewitness and forensic evidence that her daughter passed away from head injuries from an accidental fall. She is currently located at the Mountainview unit, but she is going to be transferred to Huntsville in the upcoming weeks for her April 27th execution date. As a survivor of sexual and domestic abuse, Melissa should be healing outside the confines of prison with her family who tirelessly advocates for her release. For all these reasons, I urge you to grant Melissa Lucio clemency.
It did take me a bit of time, writing out these two letters- I won’t lie about that. And I’m no stranger to how demands of modern life make free time very scarce. But, according to this page- only 118 letters have been sent in total, as of 3/24 (50 letters to the central BPP office, and 6, 19, 1, 14, 6, 18, & 4 letters to the other respective 7 BPP offices). So more letters to these offices, could very literally mean the difference between life an death for a- may I repeat- innocent woman, about to be executed, by the state of Texas.