{"id":481178,"date":"2026-10-30T07:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/481178\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T07:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:10:17","slug":"on-death-row-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/481178\/","title":{"rendered":"On death row in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his new book, \u201cRedemption: Faith, Justice, and Sisterhood on Death Row<\/a>,\u201d Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright asks an uncomfortable question: Can these women of the Patrick O\u2019Daniel Unit state prison in Gatesville, Texas, be redeemed?<\/p>\n

And as he examines their stories \u2014 the abuse they endured in their own lives and, in cases like Lucio\u2019s, the deeply flawed convictions that landed them on death row \u2014 he asks another, even more uncomfortable question: Can a culture that bears at least some of the blame for what befell these women repent for its own sins? <\/p>\n

Wright told me in a recent interview that he believes in prisons. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people do awful things,\u201d he said, \u201cand they should be punished.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he believes in redemption, too. At one point in his life, Wright was on a path to become a pastor. And while he no longer calls himself religious, he carries a reverence for faith and its power to change people. <\/p>\n

In his book, Wright chronicles the remarkable relationship between the women on death row and the Sisters of Mary Morning Star, a group of contemplative nuns in nearby Waco, Texas.<\/p>\n

The condemned women, under the Sisters\u2019 tutelage, read the Scriptures, pray, and sing. They engage in a \u201cChapters of Fault\u201d practice, admitting to and apologizing for their mistakes. Eventually, the inmates are given an opportunity to become Sisters \u2014 an opportunity that Lucio, who grew up Catholic, embraces. \u201cI\u2019m not the same person I used to be,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But if these women are capable of change, are we? <\/p>\n

Wright is clear that the hardships these women faced can\u2019t excuse their crimes. But the gross inequalities we have allowed to fester in American life clearly played a role. <\/p>\n

Wright believes that all of the women he writes about in \u201cRedemption\u201d drew \u201ca card that was going to lead to her death.\u201d A geography card. A race card. A class card. Often, these women pulled more than one.<\/p>\n

And all of the inmates, he writes, were dealt the \u201cwoman card.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a child, Lucio was sexually abused; most of the seven women Wright writes about suffered abuse at some point in their lives. And their stories are all too typical. Research from the Vera Institute of Justice shows that 86 percent of female inmates<\/a> have survived sexual assault. And a third of those<\/a> charged with murder or manslaughter report having experienced domestic violence.<\/p>\n

The \u201cwoman card,\u201d Wright points out, means disparate treatment in our criminal justice system, too.<\/p>\n

Lucio told police that her 2-year-old daughter Mariah, who died of a head injury, had fallen down the stairs. But the authorities did not believe her and charged her with murder. Her husband, who was home at the time of their daughter\u2019s death, was merely charged with neglect.<\/p>\n

Wright is \u201ca hardened reporter, supposedly,\u201d he told me. But he says the flaws he observed in the criminal justice system \u201cshocked\u201d him.<\/p>\n

Mariah\u2019s older siblings confirmed to police that their sister had, indeed, fallen down the stairs. And they said their mother had never abused Mariah. But the district attorney who handled Lucio\u2019s case, Armando Villalobos, withheld the siblings\u2019 statements<\/a> from the defense.<\/p>\n

Later, a review of the medical evidence cast doubt on the prosecution\u2019s case. And the judge in Lucio\u2019s original trial recommended that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturn her sentence and declare her \u201cactually innocent.\u201d But the appeals court rejected those claims<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to think that justice is fairly and honestly constructed in your country,\u201d Wright told me. \u201cAnd what I found is: That wasn\u2019t true.\u201d<\/p>\n

The women of the Patrick O\u2019Daniel Unit may have plenty to atone for.<\/p>\n

But so, Wright suggests, do we.<\/p>\n

Get College Town<\/p>\n

A weekly newsletter packed with insights about higher ed from Globe journalist Hilary Burns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his new book, \u201cRedemption: Faith, Justice, and Sisterhood on Death Row,\u201d Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright asks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-481178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}