from kvue news in austin you're watching
texas this week with ashley goodall
good sunday morning the biden
administration is preparing to end title
42 next month it's a federal policy that
allows the united states to quickly send
migrants who were seeking asylum here
back to their country of origin to try
to stop the spread of communicable
diseases former president donald trump's
administration implemented title 42 in
march of 2020 at the beginning of the
covet pandemic in america state and
federal leaders are preparing for an
influx of migrants once the policy ends
including texas governor greg abbott
that's where we'll start with the three
things you need to know in texas
politics
the by demonstration as we speak
with the current numbers even before the
elimination of title 42
they've been dumping large numbers of
migrants in cities up and down the
border leaving the cities to grapple
with challenges they don't have the
capability of dealing with they
themselves have been putting these
migrants on buses to san antonio so i
said i got a better idea as opposed to
busing these people to san antonio let's
continue the ride all the way to
washington d.c
on wednesday governor abbott announced
he's directed the texas department of
emergency management to use charter
buses to take migrants from texas to
washington d.c adding one of the areas
migrants will be bus too is the steps of
the united states capitol the rides
would be voluntary for migrants who have
already been processed by the department
of homeland security the governor is
also ordering dps to enhance vehicle
inspections at the border is deploying
both blockades in the rio grande river
and other deterrents
we are learning more about the impact of
the state's new election law on march
primary voters who chose to cast their
ballots by mail the secretary of state's
office released data this week showing
12.38 percent of melon ballots were
rejected more than what was originally
estimated and six times higher than the
last midterm election the secretary's
office asked election officials in all
254 counties to tell them how many
ballots were rejected of the 198
947 ballots that were sent in 24
636 ballots were rejected the rejections
happened about the same among democratic
and republican voters
thursday was historic for the united
states of america on this vote the a's
are 53 the nays are 47
and this nomination is confirmed
the senate voting to confirm judge
kataji brown jackson as the next united
states supreme court justice judge
jackson will replace justice stephen
breyer who is stepping down when the
current term ends in october judge
jackson will become the first black
woman to serve on the high court her
confirmation gained bipartisan support
though the two republican senators from
texas did not vote to confirm her in
just about two weeks the state of texas
is set to execute melissa lucio who was
convicted of capital murder for the
death of her two-year-old daughter back
in 2007 a bipartisan group of lawmakers
lucio's family even celebrities are
trying to stop it from happening
pointing out flaws in the case one of
those lawmakers el paso representative
and speaker pro tem of the texas house
joe moody joined me to talk about their
efforts
before we dive into the issues with this
case and your efforts to stop the
execution tell us a little bit about
melissa lucio what you've learned about
her
yeah melissa lucio uh was the victim of
domestic violence sexual assault
she was someone who suffered from
substance abuse
and and so she had a very difficult life
she had very difficult upbringing
she was married very young she had 12
children
so she she has faced a lot of difficult
things in her life
and
they all culminated in the in the death
of her two-year-old daughter mariah and
that's the the case that brings us to
this this moment today
you know she was convicted of mariah's
death in 2007. tell us what happened
with this little girl
yeah i think the
if you believe the story that the
prosecutors told
you know
those many years ago
that you know that she was responsible
for throwing her daughter down the
stairs and then not getting adequate
medical care for her you know there has
been an
extensive investigation into her history
regarding abuse and she didn't have any
and so that's the story they would like
you to believe the story that
we know and we've heard through experts
is that there was an accident that
happened a tragic accident
and and mariah fell down some stairs and
she had a traumatic brain injury she
also had a disorder that led to some
significant bruising
and and then and then ultimately
ultimately passed away from those
injuries and so the
uh the science then
and the evidence that was led in then
led jurors to conclude a certain way uh
if you look at expert you know experts
in their analysis of this case today i
think it would lead most people to
conclude something different in fact
jurors that served in that case have
said as much that if they knew then what
they knew know now they would not have
come to the same conclusion ms lucio
though did confess to to a crime but
there were some issues with that
confession right
look this is
multiple hours
immediately after learning the death of
her child
that they kept her in the interrogation
she was pregnant at the time
and these are interrogation techniques
that today
i think most people would say wouldn't
be used
the confession they
that was
gathered from law enforcement at the
time
had to do with
you know whether
um
you know it had nothing to do with the
death of mariah but had to do with
whether um
you know
she had spanked her or she had she had
hit her and you know hit her in the past
had nothing to do with the had nothing
to do with the fall down the stairs and
so one
was equated to the other you had a
medical examiner that jumped to
conclusions in fact a medical examiner
whose own testimony was
refuted in a case right around the same
time dealing with child abuse
you had a person that was convicted and
later exonerated
and that's the same medical examiner
that testified in melissa lucio's case
you know tell us what other things about
her conviction the trial really raised
red flags for you
well this is one of those cases that
shows you problems from beginning to end
right you have a
an investigation that begins with an
answer rather than questions right they
they
zeroed in on melissa immediately without
without looking at any other factors
you have a science that is either
you know refuted or contradicted you
have interrogation tactics that should
not have been employed
you have a defense attorney who was
lackluster and did not provide
his client melissa lucio with an
adequate defense
uh in a good way to compare is her
boyfriend at the time who faced the same
charges
was convicted of a lesser included
offense and sentenced to four years in
prison he's free today
and so those are those are the
differences that we
that we see
in this case
and uh
a very disparate impact for her
uh versus
the other individual that's charged so
problems throughout the process
and that's really what i think has
caused a lot of concern has caused a lot
of people to get involved in this case
one of those things that i think is
interesting is that her defense wasn't
able to bring up her past some of the
things that you shared with us at the
beginning of us starting to talk here
and so she did have a physical
appearance being slumped down not
necessarily making eye contact that we
see with victims of abuse
that the jury didn't know and
prosecutors used that to say she was
guilty right
well absolutely and then one of the
other points i didn't even bring up is
you know the
d.a
the d.a that had his office bring this
case prosecuted
i believe is still sitting in federal
prison for corruption charges
and who was criticized at the time for
not being tough enough on crime
and and you know here you have someone
who
who i think in my opinion was railroaded
by the system so you have problems all
across the board
and and she wasn't you know it wasn't
permitted to put in some of that
evidence there was some expert testimony
that was also excluded
and and so those are the types of things
that um
we need to be very concerned about
within our criminal justice system and
so when we you know when i when i talked
to melissa the other day and had the
opportunity to meet with her
i thanked her for telling her story
because
um
it allows those of us who have worked on
these issues to amplify that to bring
her voice into a larger space but also
to point out problems throughout the
process and so her case obviously it has
a lot of problems but i think it allows
people a glimpse into the broader issues
that we face in confronting our criminal
justice system
you of course one of 83 texas lawmakers
both democrat and republican asking the
governor and the board of pardons and
paroles to spare her life tell us about
those efforts
you know that that is a
it is an effort like i've never seen
before and i've worked on these cases
for some time now in my time in the
legislature
but 83 members and look i'm someone who
believes that we should abolish the
death penalty there are people that sign
that letter that absolutely believe that
that penalty death penalty should be
you know should continue
and so this isn't about abolishing or
not abolishing it is about fairness and
justice in our system and so you have a
coalition of people democrat republican
all stripes
that have signed on to this saying hey
this is not justice
there are problems that have to be
addressed
i'm proud of the group that we put
together i think it's unfortunate that
we have to do that because we continue
to have cases like this but the fact
that people are opening their eyes to
this
and no longer
just you know just just moving past
cases like hers you know capital
punishment is something that for
for many people
you know we we sanitize
the execution process make it look very
medical or we dehumanize the people that
we're doing it to
right so it's very easy to just dismiss
these challenging things and so i am
grateful for my colleagues that took the
time to hit pause on their lives and
think about the life of melissa lucio
think about the life of paulie think
about justice for her family
it's an important process that we're
going through and i think it's showing a
that there we are turning the corner
on
fixing some of the problems within our
criminal justice system
you can find more information about
lucio's case on kvu.com that's texas
this week
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