Original subtitles

[Music]

Jackson in Georgia,

a town of 4,000 people in the southern

United States.

A place where executions in the nearby

prison are a way of life.

In a few hours, one will take place by

lethal injection.

How do you feel about today's execution?

>> Yeah, you know, I'm fine with it. I'm

fine with the death penalty. I think

people get what they deserve. My

opinion, I think, however he did, that's

how he should be put to death. The

penalty fits the crime. If they

do a felony or, you know, like children,

got anything to do with children or

stuff like that. Yes, death penalties in

in order.

Last year, the state of Georgia broke

the record for the most executions in

the United States.

Each time, anti-death penalty

associations demonstrate for hours

trying to stop the execution.

I come down every time there's an

execution to, you know, have a presence

here to say I don't think it's right and

the state shouldn't be taking the lives

of anybody no matter what the

circumstances. And so I feel responsible

that I need to be here and and make a

stand until it stops.

>> Since 1977,

there have been,460

executions in the US.

A large majority of those executed are

blacks or Latinos,

poor people in general, mostly men, but

also women.

The last woman executed was Kelly

Gisender.

She was the 55th woman to be put to

death since the start of the 20th

century.

46-year-old Kelly Renee Danner is set to

die at 7:00 p.m. by lethal injection.

She was convicted of murder for the 1997

stabbing of her husband. Prosecutors say

she plotted his death with her

boyfriend.

>> Demonstration to prevent her execution

were organized. Her children did

everything they could to save her life.

>> We want y'all to know that we are still

fighting. Um do not lose your faith.

This is not over. There is a reason that

we didn't get to see her today and

hopefully that's because we're going to

see her again this weekend. So stay.

Even Pope Francis pled her case, but

Kelly Gender wasn't pardoned. Her final

words were broadcast on TV and on the

radio.

[Music]

I am so sorry.

That amazing man lost his life because

of me. And if I could take it back, if

this would change it, I would have done

it a long time ago.

but it's not. And I just hope they find

peace and I hope they find some

happiness.

God bless you.

>> On September 30th, 2015, at 12:21 a.m.,

Kelly Gender was executed.

She was 47 years old.

In the United States, out of the 2,843

inmates on death row, 54 are women. They

are incarcerated in 16 different states

across the country.

We were granted permission to interview

three of them.

Some have been on death row for over 15

years.

>> If I had done the crime, I would have

accepted my fate. But because I know

that I'm not guilty,

it's hard.

Linda Cardi, Shenna Ford, and Melissa

Lucio have been charged with the most

unspeakable crimes.

Violent acts that resulted in death.

They claimed the life of a young Aravaka

girl and her father.

Black, white, or Hispanic, they all have

a troubled past in common mixed with

drugs, sexual abuse, and extreme

violence. If there are some women on

death row, something was going on with

them out there in the world that led

them to do what they did.

>> These three prisoners are considered

among the most dangerous in the country.

>> They shot the husband, they shot the

wife, and they shot the 9-year-old

daughter.

>> They live in solitary confinement.

Contact with their fellow prisoners is

forbidden.

Their families denounce these terrible

conditions.

She's in a cell

all day long, 23 hours of the day.

Tell me that is not enough punishment.

>> Lawyers fight day and night to delay

their executions.

>> Also from the

>> Oh, yeah. This is from the police. This

is a police report.

>> Some are convinced of their innocence.

>> I believe that Shauna Ford was not

present when these homicides occurred.

botched trials, courtappointed lawyers,

unscrupulous judges and prosecutors. The

families believe that the deck was

stacked against them.

>> If anybody that sat through that trial

knows that my sister's trial was the

circus, it was just awful.

>> The children are also affected. They

must live with a stigma associated with

their mother's crime.

>> People emailed me and said that my

family should be instinct.

They said that it was my fault.

>> Even when they're proven innocent, the

nightmare continues.

>> They took my life. I mean, they didn't

so much as even apologize.

>> This is the unknown world of women on

death row.

Houston, Texas.

The city was the scene of a strange and

atrocious crime.

A child kidnapping and homicide that led

to the arrest of Linda Cardi.

This 43-year-old woman lived in a poor

neighborhood known for drug trafficking.

Her neighbors Joanna Rodriguez and

Raundo Cabrera had just moved to the

United States from Mexico.

They just had a baby two days earlier.

Linda Cardi is believed to have devised

the plot to steal their baby.

On May 16th, 2001, in the middle of the

night, the couple's home was stormed by

three armed men. The young parents were

gagged and beaten.

The men searched the house from top to

bottom.

Linda Cardi had made them believe that a

large amount of drugs were in the

couple's home. In exchange, they had to

deliver the mother and the newborn.

48 hours later, Joanna Rodriguez was

found dead in the trunk of a car. The

infant was safe and sound. The car

belonged to Linda Cardi.

In her hotel room, baby items were

found. She had even made her neighbors

believe she was pregnant.

Yet she denied everything to the police.

>> Linda, have you told anyone that you'll

be getting a baby in a several days?

Have you told anyone that?

>> I didn't tell anybody I'm getting a baby

in no several days.

>> You haven't told anybody that around the

apartment complex?

>> No. I said I should be um having a baby.

I didn't say I'm getting a baby like I'm

buying a baby or stealing a baby. That's

not what I told anybody. I can have a

baby if I want to have a baby. It takes

a little bit of time. Big deal,

man.

I don't even know these people from

Adam. Now I'm getting saddled.

Everybody's trying to put the the murder

on me because the the body was in my

car. Huh? I loaned the car to this guy.

The guy used me. It's just pure and

simple. I got used.

>> The evidence was overwhelming.

Linda Cardi was sentenced to death for

kidnapping and murder

[Music]

in Texas. Linda Cardi would have been

executed if a lawyer had not been

fighting for years to get her a new

trial.

>> We'll come back here.

>> Michael Goldberg works for the oldest

law firm in the United States. For 16

years, they have been handling Linda

Cart's case proono.

>> They spent more than $4 million trying

to prove she did not receive a fair

trial.

We've got

>> So then we have the whole Oh, the the

interview that that we've got for for

Chris. So this would have been the

original police one

>> which became one of the biggest pieces

of evidence we had in the June hearing.

Why is that?

>> Because this was the police report. Uh

the video of the the key guy, the one

who did it all being interviewed by the

police when he was first and and telling

the story completely different than what

he told at trial. And so this we never

had.

>> Michael Goldberg's accusations are

serious. He's trying to prove that

prosecutors tempered with evidence and

encouraged fake testimonies. As a

result, Linda Cardi was sentenced to

death. District attorneys had handled

this case.

They withheld evidence. The witnesses

reported how they were bullied into

saying certain things and not saying

certain things. And when we started

hearing this independently, the

witnesses independently with the same

story,

it all came into focus. The jury was

misled by the district attorneys and

there was no fair trial.

>> Why was the prosecution so relentless in

seeking the death penalty? When

considering the evidence, Linda Cardi

would have certainly been sentenced to

life. in Texas especially

uh to win elections, you have to be seen

as being someone strong and someone

strong on crime is important. And so if

you have a judge that lets criminals

loose or or criminals win, the opponents

will come in and say this judge is weak

on crime and they lose.

>> Was Linda Cardi sentenced to death

in order for the prosecutors to win

elections?

Are the codefendants on death row?

>> No. No. The ones that admitted doing

this, the ones that admitted putting her

in the trunk, the ones that admitted

leaving her in the trunk for for eight

hours in the Texas heat,

they all struck deals.

They the the the DAs went to them and

told them, "You either testify this way

or you'll get the death penalty."

The men got sentences ranging from 15 to

45 years in prison.

Linda Cardi continues to deny any

involvement. Her only hope is to get a

new trial, but all of her appeals have

been systematically rejected.

For 16 years, she has been on death row

in Gatesville, a city lost in the

countryside, surrounded by six prisons

for women.

Nearly 7,700 detainees are locked up

here. Among them, six are on death row.

We were granted permission to meet Linda

Cardi with a strict agreement with her

lawyer not to speak about her case.

A 60-minute interview with a woman

considered to be one of the most

dangerous in the United States.

[Music]

>> Hello.

>> Hi.

>> Hello, Linda. How are you?

>> I'm blessed, Serena.

>> Thank you for accepting to talk to us.

>> You're welcome.

>> Yeah. Describe to me how how's your life

here?

>> Rough. Um there are moments you know

it's up and down and it depends on the

um status of your appeal

because you could be quite euphoric at

sometimes and then all of a sudden you

could be in that valley

you know whenever you your cases or your

appeal is denied every time I talk about

that I want to cry because it's

difficult shouldering

it's for me in particular if I had done

the crime

I would have accepted my fate. But

because I know that I'm not guilty,

it's hard. It's hard dealing with it.

And I try not I try to put it on the

back burner and not think about it

because I don't want to be another

statistic for the mental health um

department.

And I need to be able to stay strong so

that um in the process of having my

investigators and my attorneys and my

daughter and my friends helping me to

clear my name that I won't become a

burden for anyone either for the rest of

my life.

>> Are there times where you you you can't

take it anymore?

>> I have a daughter that I really really

love. I truly love and um it's this

place is enough of a burden for her. So

for me to try to commit suicide or to

give up or anything.

I feel as though I would fail my child.

>> She's had kids.

>> She has two boys. I have two grandsons.

>> Have you ever met them?

>> I've met one. you know, because we're

not allowed to have visits with our kids

because the state says that if you have

a um a crime against a child that you

are not allowed to have the visits with

even your own family,

your family members who are kids. So,

no, I don't get to see them other than

pictures and

talking to them on the phone every 90

days.

Like all women on death row, Linda Cardi

has no physical contact with her family.

Visits are always behind this

bulletproof glass.

These special inmates are separated from

the rest of the prison population.

They are in total isolation,

locked in tiny cells.

They are not allowed to have personal

belongings or photos on the wall.

Awakened every morning at 3:00 a.m.,

their lives revolve around meals and

inspections every two hours.

Alone 24 hours a day, they are waiting

to be executed.

[Music]

These imprisonment conditions are deemed

inhumane by the prisoner's families.

A mental and emotional torture that also

affects their children and

grandchildren.

Jovel Cardi, Linda's daughter, tries her

best to maintain family ties with her

mom, whose life is on hold. It's a

challenge to make her exist virtually to

her children, to maintain a semblance of

normality. This isn't their first

Christmas, but this is one of their

Christmases. And of course, my mom gets

copies of all of these photos, and we

try to send as many as possible. The

boys try to send as many cards as they

possibly can. So

they write letters,

try to keep in contact, keep her updated

on what's going on, any kind of family

gossip, anything like that.

>> Grandchildren who have never seen the

grandmother that they hear about all the

time and who will one day learn the

truth about her crime.

I usually have my mom's with the newest

announcement here. So, anything that's

new at school or anything like that, my

mom's in the picture will be the one

that's got the newest announcement next

to it.

>> That's a way for her not to be

forgotten.

>> Yes, she's always included.

>> And do the kids ask about her?

>> All the time.

All the time. Mother's Day was always

pretty difficult at our house.

Um,

>> when they ask questions, what kind of

questions would they ask?

>> It's the normal questions. You know,

how's Nana doing? When was the last time

you talked to Nana? Are we when are we

going to be able to go see Nana? You

know,

how come we can't go? And the best we

can do is to just explain it to them.

These are the rules that they have set

up and we can't change their rules.

Joll only has one picture of her mother

taken by a guard from the other side of

the visiting room with a jacket to hide

her prisoner's clothes.

She is always alone. Contact with other

death row prisoners is not allowed.

She's in a cell

all day long, 23 hours of the day,

non-stop.

And the one hour that she gets to come

out of this cell where she is all by

herself, she still doesn't get to have

interaction with everyone else. She's

still by herself. Tell me that it's not

punishment.

Tell me that it's not enough punishment.

>> And how does that make you feel?

>> I'm worried about, you know, is she

going to be sane?

Cuz how long can you maintain being by

yourself

for year after year after year with no

one to talk to? Where does your sanity

go?

Not surprisingly, many who are condemned

to death sink into madness long before

being executed.

Aravaka, Arizona.

A place in the middle of the desert

close to the Mexican border.

This community of only 30,000 people is

a mixture of newcomers, trappers, and

vigilante groups who tried to prevent

migrants crossing the border.

One militia was responsible for the

biggest slaughter in the region.

led by 42-year-old Shauna Ford, now

sentenced to death for executing a

Mexican family who she suspected of

trafficking drugs.

Her friend Lane Lawless has also

dedicated her life to stop illegal

immigrants from entering the United

States.

If you're going to go to a place where

there's a lot of trafficking and stuff

going on, you're probably going to take

something like an AK47 or a an AR-15.

You really shouldn't go out to places

where there's drug smugglers and not

carry a long gun of any kind. You need

something.

>> Shauna Ford's organization

was a nationalist militia which claimed

to fight cartels at the border.

[Music]

Shauna Ford was an early activist, a

regular on the media and television.

>> She liked to praise the merits of her

militant actions.

>> She knew Aravaka like the back of her

hand.

>> This is an extremely dangerous area.

Matter of fact, so dangerous that I'm

refusing to bring the reporters in

because I don't have enough arsenal. I

have one gun on me and three people and

I'm not going to be responsible for

life. We're not getting people

scientists and lawyers and doctors here,

okay? We're getting the poor of the

poor. We know what we need to do to

secure these borders. We know what we

need to do to secure the sovereignty of

this nation. And that's what we're going

to do. And we will win this war. This is

Shauna Ford, Minuteman, American

Defense.

>> Lane Lawless, like other militia

members, doesn't believe Shauna Ford is

a murderer.

She thinks she was settling scores

between opposing cartels

and that she was the scapegoat for the

murders.

This is the house where the Aravaka

massacre happened. At about 12:45 a.m.

on a Friday night,

several intruders burst into that house.

They were supposedly pretending to be

Border Patrol and were dressed as Border

Patrol.

And they shot the husband, they shot the

wife, and they shot the nine-year-old

daughter. The wife survived. She was not

shot in the head like the daughter and

the husband were.

Shauna Ford was never positively

identified by the surviving witness. So

there were definitely two men there and

one woman and there were additional

parties as well. She didn't know if

there she said there might have been

four or five people there but she

couldn't describe them.

Brcennia Flores, nine, and her father

Raul Flores died on the spot with a

bullet in the head. The only survivor of

the massacre, Gina Gonzalez,

Brristenia's mother. Shot in the leg,

she pretended to be dead during the

shooting before calling for help.

>> 911, where's emergency?

>> Somebody just came in and shot my

daughter and my husband.

>> They shot them? And where where were

they shot?

>> In the head. In the head.

>> Are they still there? The people who are

there that shot them?

>> They're coming back in. They're coming

back in.

While Gina Gonzalez was on the phone,

the asalants who heard her came back

inside the house to eliminate the only

survivor.

To defend herself, Gina Gonzalez picked

up her husband's weapon and started

firing. A man was injured in the leg.

You can clearly hear the voice of a

woman on the recording. A voice that

could belong to Shauna Ford.

>> Get the [ __ ] out of here.

>> Get the [ __ ] out of here.

Are you okay? How many people were

there?

>> I don't know, ma'am.

>> And did it sound like males were

talking?

>> There was a male and there was a shorter

fat woman.

>> Okay. Now, the woman, what did she look

like? Was she a Hispanic male?

>> She was a white woman.

>> Okay.

>> A few hours later, Shunnifford was

arrested with two accompllices.

>> Breaking news. Just coming into our

News4 newsroom. Three people have been

arrested in connection with a deadly

home invasion.

>> After a highly publicized trial, Shauna

was sentenced to death for the double

homicide.

Despite the fact that Gina Gonzalez, the

only survivor, was never able to

formally identify her, nor to say

exactly how many killers were in the

house.

Chris Aurly, Shauna Ford's lawyer,

believed there is no evidence that his

client was present at the scene of the

crime.

In addition, he found photos on the

phone of one of the witnesses, which he

claims prove Sha Ford's innocence.

We see a mysterious woman carrying a

weapon similar to the one found at the

scene of the crime. This woman's

identity is still unknown today.

In the first place, Gina Gonzalez,

she wasn't certain if it was one woman

in her house or two women because the

woman who was initially there went

outside and a few minutes later, a woman

came in who was dressed completely

differently and had her hair done

completely differently and she

identified her as being a heavy set

short woman with blondish brown hair.

Now, we can prove

that these photographs were taken the

night before the Flores homicides

occurred. The jury never saw these

photographs. Looks to me like a short

heavy set woman with blondish brown

hair. That is not Shauna Ford. We don't

know who it is. There is a shotgun there

and a Rossi 357 caliber revolver.

Now, 20 minutes after the homicides

occurred, this weapon

was found in the Flor's front yard. This

is also a Rossi 357 handgun with finger

indentations. I believe that Shauna Ford

was not present when these homicides

occurred. She was not present at the

Flora's home. She simply wasn't there.

This is also what Shauna Ford has been

claiming since she was arrested.

We requested an interview, but death row

inmates are not allowed interviews in

Arizona.

>> After months of waiting, we're finally

granted permission to talk to her on the

phone.

>> Um, we have an appointment at 10:00 for

an interview.

>> Yes.

>> Here, I'll put her on the line.

>> Okay. Thank you.

>> Hello.

>> Hello. Is this Shauna?

>> Hi.

>> Hi, Shauna. This is

>> Hi, how are you?

>> How are you doing?

>> Oh, you know, surviving. I believe that

we have shown enough evidence and shown

enough in the appeal that we now have

filed that an overturn.

I think it's is expected at some point.

If it's not be on a state level, then

maybe on a federal level. You know, it's

very tough to get off death row, though.

But I think what has offended me is how

do you put me on death row as

accomplice and it doesn't matter if I'm

at the scene of the crime or not? Um

because I I had I should have I probably

greenlighted it or was a part of

masterminding it. How do you send one

person to death row and you send another

20 to general population or more that

committed even more outrageous crimes? I

think the justice system is extremely

extremely broken and I see a lot of

women here lifers that probably should

have never been found guilty and so it's

not just myself. It's just the whole

justice system.

>> Was there times where you just wanted to

end it?

>> Sure. There's many many times over

several years that you just wish you

don't have you don't wake up again.

Just let me die. It's hard to find the

value for yourself when you know you

have no human contact. So when anybody

gets convicted of something so

outrageous, you're going to

automatically, you know, move away from

that person as fast as possible because

you don't want to be associated. And

there's just been so many lies, Sabrina,

and so much misreporting that you just

have to look the other way and develop a

tough skin and let it go.

Life is not precious when you're in

hell. So,

>> do we have to wrap this up now?

>> Yeah, we do.

>> Okay. Well, thank you so much.

>> Oh, thank you, Sabrina. Good luck on

that.

>> Thank you. Good luck to you, too.

Bye-bye.

>> Thanks. Bye.

>> Like many women on death row, Shana Ford

no longer has contact with her family.

Her brothers and sisters want nothing to

do with her. And even her own mother

testified against her at her trial.

In 6 years, she has not had one single

visit from her family.

The only one who continues to write to

her is her daughter Jasmine.

She was 17 years old when her mother was

sentenced to death.

Convinced of her innocence, this

nightmare haunts her day and night.

After being harassed, she had to change

her name and move out of state.

>> Do you often think of your mother

>> all the time?

>> There's not a day that goes by I don't

think about her.

I wish I had a magical time machine that

I can go back in time and tie her up and

put her in my closet.

that none of this would have happened,

that she wouldn't ended up

over there when she got framed for what

she did.

I was a kid that had a pretty decent

life

to nothing

to lower than nothing.

>> You were 17 at the time. You were a

student. What happened to that?

>> I dropped out. My family turned their

back on me.

I lived in a tent in the middle of

wintertime just to survive.

People emailed me and said that my

family should be instinct.

They said that it was my fault,

that I shouldn't be here, that I should

be dead.

I hated America.

I still do

and I love my country, but I hate the

people.

>> Do you sometimes fear the phone call

that would tell you that your mom might

be executed?

>> Yes.

But if it comes to that, I want to be

there.

I want her last look to be at my face.

Not the people around her that want her

dead. The person that wants her there.

One last happy thought.

Even if it might damage me for the rest

of my life, I'm willing to take that

risk.

Her mother's execution seems inevitable

unless she can finally have a new trial.

In the United States, very few women on

death row manage to prove their

innocence.

Lawyers can fight until the last minute,

but they are almost never able to

overturn a decision. Since 1976,

only six women have been released.

We met one of them in Nashville,

Tennessee.

[Music]

Michelle Byum spent 14 years on death

row. Convicted for plotting the murder

of her husband who beat her. She was

released 2 years ago.

Today she lives in a home for battered

women.

This shelter is the only place that

would accept this 59year-old woman who

is poor and seriously ill.

>> How are you? After breast cancer

contracted in prison and several

pneumonia, she underwent a double

masectomy and now lives with respiratory

assistance.

>> And what did they say yesterday?

>> Everything is good. No cancer in the

bones.

>> Good.

>> It's wonderful. They had me scared there

for a while.

>> Mhm.

>> I'd like to go, you know, do some

traveling and everything, but um

right now it's the thing is about saving

money and putting me away, you know.

in this place is helping me do that. Um,

if it wasn't for this place, I'd be

living under a bridge.

>> Well, you have had a lot of firsts here.

You got your first cell phone.

>> Yes. My first very first cell phone.

>> First cell phone.

>> We got to be part of the first text and

phone calls. That was fun.

>> Yes. Uhhuh. Yes.

>> Now you're a pro at it.

>> Yes.

>> I'm

teaching myself computer. Mhm.

>> Michelle Byum receives a retirement

pension of $600 a month. In less than a

year, she'll be forced to leave the home

and will be on her own.

She will have to start all over again

with no compensation from the state.

>> How much did you get after being

wrongfully convicted?

>> Nothing. I didn't even get the money

that you're supposed to get when you

leave prison. I didn't even get that.

I didn't get a dime.

>> And do you have family that can take

care of you now?

>> No.

>> So now you're on your own.

>> So I'm completely on my own. I've come

through too many obstacles to

let it get me down.

So

>> what Michelle Byum went through is

unconceivable.

After 14 years on death row, she was

suddenly released

just a few hours before being executed.

[Music]

A woman convicted of killing her husband

was not executed today. The state

supreme court wants more time to review

the case.

Michelle Byum learned about her release

in a surprising way.

Another little girl on death row was

next door to me.

She said, "Um, you're not going to be

executed. You're free."

And I said, "Oh, you know, I've heard

that so many times." No, she said, "It's

on the news."

So, I turned on the news and they said,

"Uh, Michelle Byum was fixing to be

executed in 8 hours. Her sentence was

overturned."

Michelle Byum has always claimed her

innocence. Her own son, also charged,

has always insisted that he murdered his

father. For 14 years, he wrote her

letters where he clearly admitted to the

murder.

>> Mom, I'm going to tell you who killed

dad. I did. And it wasn't for the money.

It was for the abuse.

>> Letters that were never taken into

account by the court.

This evidence should have cleared Michel

Bum's name.

and allow her to receive a large

financial compensation.

Everybody was going, "Go for your new

trial. Go for your new child." But then

I found out that at the last minute

there wasn't going to be a trial.

That's what I couldn't understand why

all of a sudden

everybody turned against it.

And what did they wanted you to do? Then

>> they said, "Take the plea. Take plea.

Take the no contest. Take no contest."

And then a month later, I figured out

why they wanted me to take no contest.

Because I had cancer. I found out a

month after I was finally released that

I had late third stage breast cancer.

And they said that I've had it for years

at the stage it was in. And they had

taken a mammogram at the prison. So they

knew I had it.

What does it mean for you to play no

contest?

>> It's to save their face so they don't

get sued

and they don't have to pay anything.

>> The state should have paid for Michel

Byum's medical expenses,

but by signing the no contest agreement,

she gave up her rights. Although free,

in the eyes of the law, she is not

pardoned. She remains guilty.

Consequently, she will never be able to

sue the state or obtain any compensation

for her damages.

>> They took my life,

been taking my life to this day. It's

still my life is still being taken away

from me. My pleasure has been taken away

from me.

My hopes have been taken away from me.

I mean, they didn't so much as even

apologize.

A wasted life and a deep sense of

injustice.

This is also what a judge of the

Mississippi Supreme Court thought.

Oliver Diaz was one of seven judges who

re-examined Michelle Byum's appeal

proceedings.

He believed from the start that her

guilt was unfounded and that she needed

to be released.

>> In the Michelle Byum case, um, while I

was on the court in 2003, the majority

of the judges uh, voted to keep her

conviction in place and keep her on

death row, even though I had written an

opinion urging the rest of my fellow

judges to overturn that conviction

because I thought there were problems

and I thought it should be um,

overturned.

She remained in prison and stayed there

for I think another 11 years or so after

I wrote my opinion.

>> Oliver Diaz, now retired, has never

forgotten Michel Byron's case, which

remains his greatest regret.

Since then, he's made a point of

speaking in the media about the

unfairness of the death penalty.

>> A two-tier system where the poorest are

condemned in advance.

Rich people generally don't go to death

row. Poor people do. I mean, if you've

got the resources, if you're wealthy, if

you're rich, um if you've got your own

private attorneys and you can hire

investigators and you have witnesses,

you're not going to go to death row. Um

it's the poor people that that can't

fight back, that don't have the

resources. Um if you don't have those

resources, um the chances of you being

convicted go up dramatically at that

point.

Once a sentence is pronounced, it is

almost impossible to reverse it.

Once somebody is convicted, once there's

a conviction in place, the state very

rarely ever backs off. I mean, they they

will proceed as though you are

completely guilty from that point on.

The state will not back off. It's sort

of like the Arnold Schwarzenegger

Terminator movie. He's not going to stop

until it's over. I've seen cases where

prosecutors have um there there's newly

discovered DNA in a case which will tell

you who should have been convicted and

prosecutors will fight that. They don't

want this DNA tested because they

already have a conviction in place. Why

risk overturning that conviction?

>> Technically today for the state of

Mississippi, Michelle Byron is still

guilty.

>> Technically she is guilty. Um but uh in

exchange the state has said she's served

all the time that she needs to serve.

>> But that means that she can't sue.

>> That's correct.

>> So how much how much money would she

have been entitled to had she sued?

>> I think it's about $100,000 a year for

um each year that you serve wrongfully

serve something around there.

>> So she would be getting

>> some somewhere over a million dollars

probably. She'd served over 10 years on

death row.

more than a million dollars, not

counting medical expenses.

But how can you defend yourself when

you're poor, sick, and about to be

executed?

[Music]

During our investigation, we were able

to verify the statements of this former

Supreme Court judge. Virtually all women

on death row are indeed poor, had a

public defender, and a speedy trial.

In Texas, another case caught our

attention.

That of a woman accused of killing her

two-year-old daughter.

[Music]

Melissa Lucia was 40 when she was

convicted to death in 2008.

The media barely covered the story. The

case of a poor, drugaddicted Hispanic

woman, mother of 13 children, generated

no interest.

Her

sister and her daughter-in-law

refused to believe that Melissa would

have hurt Mariah.

I don't know.

>> For them, it was an accident caused by a

fall.

[Music]

We went to see the body before

they brought her out. I mean, we had

that in our head. What happened to this

baby? They said she had trauma. She had

trauma to the head.

Uh, and she had a broken arm, I believe.

But that could have been from the fall.

I That's the only one I have.

>> And how old was she there?

>> About a year and a half old.

I don't believe it was Melissa that did

it. I don't They were I mean, there was

a house full of children. I mean, small

kids. I mean, I don't know. I honestly

don't believe it was her. Melissa had no

mean bone in her body. I mean, she never

disciplined these kids. I remember her

yelling, you know, but I Melissa to

spank her kids.

No,

I I never No, Melissa never spanked. I

wish you would have. Look at all these

kids. They've been through a lot.

Richard tried to hang himself.

He tried to hang himself.

Do you think that's because of what

happened?

>> They wanted their mom.

[Music]

They wanted their mom.

Can you imagine going from foster care

to foster care

in somebody else's bed?

You need your mom.

My sister was a good mother.

[Music]

Following the arrest of Melissa Lucio,

the family was broken apart and the

children were placed in homes all over

Texas. They have never seen their mother

again.

I don't know why my sister's sitting on

death row. A danger to society having 13

children.

That just doesn't make any sense at all.

If anybody that sat through that trial

knows that my sister's trial was the

circus. It was just awful.

She stood no chance.

She stood no chance. We tried. We went

everywhere. Pro bono, everybody. 150 to

start, 150,000 to start. Where do we

come up with that money? We could sell

everything and we still don't have that

money.

>> Do you feel that her attorneys were fit

for the trial?

>> Nope. Not at all.

Not at all.

Sonia, Melissa Lucio's sister,

believes that the lawyers assigned to

the case botched the trial.

They never interrogated her family or

any of her children.

>> This is right here.

This is where she lived.

>> Nor did they investigate an accident

that Mariah suffered two days before the

tragedy.

>> Oh my god.

a fall down the stairs which could have

been the cause of her head trauma.

>> So from here they were moving and

between that time that's when that

accident happened. So to me how I mean

my sister's moving stuff sofas and

whatever she had where would she have

time to abuse Mariah? The younger boys

are the ones that stated that Mariah

fell. I don't even think Melissa saw

when she fell. the kids. It was just

coming from the the smaller children

that Mariah had fallen down the stairs

13 stairs down. I mean, a baby. I mean,

she had she didn't know how to

>> roll or protect herself and she could

have been hitting her head as she was

falling down and then hit her last

where they say she had a a concussion to

the head. Um, on the bricks.

>> There's bricks right there.

This accident which was witnessed by

Melissa Lucio's sons was never taken

into account by the court even though

they had told this to the police when

their mother was arrested.

Despite the evidence that was never

taken into account, Melissa Lucio state

appeals have all failed.

Her last hope is to appeal to the US

Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, she's on Gatesville's death

row with slim chances of escaping

execution.

This is the first time she's been

interviewed about this crime. She has

always maintained her innocence.

>> Hello.

>> Hello. Thank you for accepting to talk

to me.

>> You're welcome. So tell me, how long

have you been here in Texas?

>> Um, on death row, I've been here

going on 9 years. On August 12th will be

9 years.

>> Did you ever think that something like

this would happen to you?

>> Oh, no. No.

>> You do you feel that you stood a chance

when this trial the trial?

>> Oh, no. No. No.

>> Why is that?

because they

I think the jury when the jury walked in

and they saw

they saw these pictures of my daughter,

I'm sure they

they agreed with what the district

attorney was, you know, trying to

convince them that I was guilty. So, I

think they came they came in already

thinking that they were going to accuse

me and find me guilty of,

you know,

murdering my daughter.

>> And how many of your appeals have been

denied?

>> Um,

I have one appeal left. So, that means

uh my last appeal will go into the US

Supreme Court. So, that'll be my last

resort. And if I get denied there, then

I get an execution date.

>> Are you scared?

>> I wouldn't say I'm scared. Um,

I just feel for my children

not uh

not being able to

say goodbye to them if this does happen.

What's your biggest regret?

>> Not being the mother that I should have

been to my children.

being a

a drug addict,

putting my drugs before my children.

I think that's that's my biggest regret.

you know, everybody,

you know, they they hear about death row

and they want to, you know, put a tag on

us and and think that we're the worst of

the worst. And we're not. You know, some

of us did leave lead awful lives out

there, but we're not the person that

they're accusing us of being. And if

there is if there are some women on

death row that are guilty of their

charge,

you know,

something was going on with them out

there in the world that led them to do

what they did. But

nobody can nobody shouldn't judge

anybody because everybody sins every

day. Nobody's perfect. We all make

mistakes.

>> A statement that could be her last

words.

>> Thank you so much.

>> You're welcome.

Melissa Lucio is the next woman on the

list of those to be executed in Texas.

Melissa, if

>> you'll just go down there and she'll get

that microphone.

>> Okay. All right. Thank you.

>> Only the Supreme Court can save her now.

[Music]

In Harlingen in South Texas, her family

is also preparing for the worst.

When they meet, they remember happy

times as if to ward off the misfortune.

Times when Melissa Lucio danced to her

brother's music.

[Music]

>> Hey,

>> that was one of Melissa's favorite. That

was the Hometown Boys.

>> Yes.

>> Does that make you think of her when you

play that? Yeah, of course. Um, growing

up, you know, she was kind of like my

second mom. When my mom didn't want me,

I would go with her. I made her out to

be like a monster, which is not true

whatsoever. Yeah, she had her flaws, you

know, she had her flaws. She had her her

her addictions or whatever, but no, it

wasn't enough to to to be a murderer.

>> Are you in touch with your sister?

>> Why?

>> I'm just scared.

It's depressing.

It's

I try not to think about it because like

I said, how can I be happy? How can I

have a life and she doesn't?

I have a lot of letters that my mom

gives me. I don't open them.

>> You scared that she's going to be as

confused,

>> huh?

>> Yes. and then we don't see her.

>> That's why I don't want to read her

letters because I'm scared to read them.

They're still They're still sealed.

They're not open.

>> My mom says she doesn't want to go and

see her like that.

>> But

there's no hope for her. At least I

don't think so.

>> If she was executed in the near future,

would you go?

>> Yeah, I would go. Why would I go?

I don't know if my sisters will go, but

I would go.

[Music]

For the families of those on death row,

it's torture,

an unbearable weight, an often

incomprehensible punishment.

Whether these women are guilty

or innocent

[Music]