Transcripts For RT Documentary 20240711

Thank you. Thank you and. Like many women on death row china for 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 trial. In 6 years she has not had one single visit from her family. The only one who continues to write to her daughter jasmine. She was 17 years old when her mother was sentenced to death. Events of her any sense nightmare hons for a day and night. After being harassed she had to change her name and moved out of state. You often think of her mother. All the time. Goes by i dont think. I wish i had a magical time machine that i can go back in time. And tire and put her in my closet. That none of this would happen that she wanted to end it. Over there when she got framed for she did. I was a kid i had a pretty decent life. To nothing. To lower than nothing you were 17 at the time youre a student you might have the stock. Dropped out. My family turned their back on me. I lived in a tent in the middle of winter tonight just to survive. People emailing me and said my family should be and still. They say that it was my fault. That i shouldnt be here i should be dead. I hated america. Has still do. You know love my country but i hate the people. You sometimes your. The phone call that would tell you that your mom might be executed yes. But if so that i want to be there. I want her to be my face not the people around her that want her dead person that wants her there. One less of. A minute. 10 which me for the rest well i for willing to take that risk. Her mothers execution seems inevitable. Unless she can finally have a new job. In the United States very few women on death row managed to prove their innocence. Lawyers can fight until the last minute but they are almost never able to overturn a decision. Since 976 only 6 women have been released. We met one of them and nashville tennessee. Michelle byron spent 14 years on death row convicted for plotting the murder of her husband who beat her she was released in 2015 and in 2019 she lived in a home for battered women. It was the only place that would accept this old woman who was poor and seriously ill. After Breast Cancer contracted in prison and several pneumonia as she underwent a double mastectomy and lived with systems where they say yesterday if. No cancer in the. Longer they had a miscarriage. Id like to go you know do some traveling you know everything. Right now all this thing is about saving money but you know what you know. In this place is. If it wasnt for this place. I would be living under a bridge. While you have had a lot of here you got your 1st cell phone yes but 1st very. Well you got to be a part of the 1st text and found calls that live by. Now your yes. Teaching myself. Michelle byron receives a retirement pension of 600. 00. There is a month and less than a year before home and will be on her own she will have to start all over again with no compensation from the state. Can be wrong. And even get the money that you get when you. I dont even get it. And you are i didnt think you would know. So now youre on the ground and so i dont know. Ive come through too many obstacles. To let it get me down. What Michelle Byron went through is inconceivable. After 14 years on death row she was suddenly released just a few hours before being executed. The woman convicted of killing her husband was not executed today the state Supreme Court wants more time to review the case. Michelle byron learned about her release in a surprising way. And the little girl on this for was next door to me she said youre not going to be executed youre free. And you know ive heard that so many times its on the news. Side turned on the news and i said Michelle Baron 6 to be executed in 8 hours her sentence was overturned. Michelle byron always claims her innocent was. Own son also charged always insisted that he murdered his father. For 14 years he wrote her letters where he clearly admitted to the murder. Im going to tell you that you know i did and it wasnt for the money it was for the. Letters that were never taken into account by the court this evidence should have cleared Michelle Byrons name and allowing her to receive a large financial compensation. Everybody was going to go for your new trial go see a new trial but then i found out that. At the last minute there wasnt going to be a trial. And thats why i couldnt understand why all of us. Everybody turned against. To and whether he wanted you to do that they said take the plea plate take the no contest take no contest and then a month later i figured out why they wanted me to take no countess because i had cancer i found out a month after i was finally released that i had 3rd stage Breast Cancer. And they said that i have had it for years at the stage it was c. N. N. And they had taken a mammogram at the prison so they knew i had it. What does it mean. For you taking no contest is to save their face so they dont get sick. And they dont have to pay anything. The state should have paid for initial buyers medical expenses but by signing the no contest agreement she gave up her rights although free in the eyes of the law she was not pardoned she remained guilty consequently she was not able to sue the state or obtain any compensation for her damages they took my life. Taking my life to this day still. Being taken away from me my pleasure has been taken away from me. My hopes have been taken away from me. I mean so much even a. Wasted life and a deep sense of injustice. This is also what a judge at the mississippi Supreme Court thought. Oliver diaz was one of the 7 judges who reexamined to michele proceedings. He believed from the start that her guilt was unfounded and that she needed to be released in the machine case while i was on the court in 2003 the majority of the judges voted to keep her conviction in place to 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 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. Which remains his greatest regret. Since. Hes made a point of speaking in the media about the unfairness of the death penalty. For the poor and. Rich people generally dont go to death row poor people do. I mean if youve got the resources if youre wealthy if youre rich if youve got your own private attorneys and you can hire investigators and you have witnesses youre not to go to death row support people that cant fight back they dont have the right. If you dont have those resources the chances of you being convicted go up dramatically at that point. Lets compare biden he comes into office potentially and this means that i believe a repeat of 2008 remember Obama Took Office because obama was a pretty young guy the timing didnt come through financing. A law student very good. Thing about wall street he kind of threw the keys of wall street over Larry Summers and all these other folks and they want to head and they created the Global Financial crisis. After that seemed to benefit the bears in a remarkable way remember the billionaires after the 2008 crisis. Or their wealth. Of American Population went bankrupt or lost their house so im pretty sure going to see a repeat of that. It is almost impossible. Somebody is convicted once theres a conviction in place the state very rarely ever i mean they they will proceed. Completely guilty from that point on the state will. Not going to stop until its over ive seen cases where prosecutors have. Newly discovered d. N. A. In a case which will tell you who should have been convicted and prosecutors will fight that they dont want this d. N. A. Tested because they already have a conviction in place. Conviction technically today for the state of mississippi. Technically she is guilty. But. In exchange. Of the time that she needs to serve. I think its about 100000. 00 a year for each year that. Something. More than a 1000000. 00. But how can you defend yourself when youre poor and. Poor. Another case. Accused of killing her 2 year old daughter. It was 40 when she was convinced that in 2008 the media barely covered the story the case of a poor drug addicted hispanic woman mother of 13 children generated no interests. Her sister and her daughter in law refused to believe that melissa would have hurt mariah. To go through that it was an accident caused by a. We went to see the body before they brought her out i mean we had that in our head what happened was. They said she had trauma she had trauma to the head. And she had a broken arm i. Could have been from the. Only one i have. A buddy in the household. I dont believe it was because of the did it. I dont. They were i mean there was a house full of children i mean small kids i mean i dont know i honestly dont believe it was her. I dont mean bone in her body i mean she never disciplined these kids i remember her yelling you know but i mean the kids. No. I never know the senators and i wish you would if. You could all these kids its theyve been through a lot richard trying to hate him so. He tried to hang himself. Using this because of what they want to do wrong. One of their mom. And imagine going from foster care to foster care. And somebody elses. You need your mom. To listen to was a good mother. Following the arrest of alisa loose show the family was broken apart and the children were placed in homes all over texas. They have never seen their mother again. I dont know why my sister sitting on death row i do you know to society having 13 children. There just doesnt make any sense that ill. Have anybody that sat through that trial knows that my sisters child was the circus it was just awful. She stood no chance. She stood no chance we tried to be going everywhere pro bono everybody 150 just started 150008 star or do we come up with that many you can sell everything and we still dont have that many do you feel that her attorneys for the trial nope not at all. Not at all. Sunny. Sister believes that the lawyers assigned to the case botched the trial. They never interrogated her family or any of her children. Since. This is where she live. Nor did they investigate an accident that mariah suffered 2 days before the tragedy. We. Could have been the cause of her head trauma. From here they were moving and in between that time that accident happened. I mean my sisters moving stuff so. Whatever she had. Time to abuse. The younger boys are the ones that dated. Saw. It was just coming from the smaller children m. R. I have fallen down the stairs. I mean a baby i mean she had she didnt know how to. Protect yourself and she could have been hitting her head as she was falling down and then hit her last. Concussion to the head. Right there. Which was witnessed by. Sons was never taken into account by the even though they had told this to the police when their mother was arrested. Despite the evidence that was never taken into account. Have all failed. Her last job is to appeal to the u. S. Supreme court. Shes on gainesville death row. This is the 1st time shes been interviewed about this crime she has always maintained her innocence. And the thing before. The welcome so tell me how long have you been. On death row ive been here. Going on 9 years. On august 12th will be 9 years. Did you ever think that Something Like this would happen and i hope you know. You do you feel that you stood a chance when the struggle the trial the no you know now. Why is that. Because the. I think the jury when the jury walked in and they saw. They saw these pictures of my daughter. That im sure they. They agreed with where 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 there accused me and by me guilty of. You know. Murdering my daughter. And how many of your appeals have been and i will. I would appeal live so that means my last appeal will go into the u. S. Supreme court so that will be my last resort and if i get the night there then i get an execution date. You see here. I wouldnt say im scared. I just feel for my children. Now. Not being able to. Say goodbye to them in this. Whats your biggest regret. And not being the mother that i should have been to my children. Being. A drug addict. Put my drugs before patil great. I think thats thats my biggest regret. You know everybody you know they they hear about that role when they won a you know put a tag on a scent and that were the worst of the worst and were not you know some of us deadly lead awful lives out there but were not the person that theyre accusing us of being in if there is if there are some women on that road that are guilty of the 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 should inject anybody because everybody sins every day nobodys perfect we all make mistakes a statement that could be her last words thank you thank you so what. Is the next woman on the list of those to be executed in texas. Ok all right big only the Supreme Court can save her now. In arlington and 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 brothers music. And. 6 that. That was one of melissas favorite that was the one time voice says sonny on tape yeah. Growing up which was kind of like my savior more mom on the older. Little monster which is not sure where she ever froze mosharraf roll she heard her say she was a liberal but you know it wasnt enough. To be a nerd and you can touch just. Im just scared its. Its. Its. Tragic i think about it because i can see how can i be happy how can i. Have a life and she. I have a letter that im using to i dont know. Im scared this isnt here. Packets we dont see why i dont want to be counted because im scared to. Do assume you still feel you are not a. Problem says she does no good google is here. Where. There is still hope. And is able to say. If she was a. New year she chills you go. What would go. Nova students who go. For the families of those on death row. Its torture. And unbearable waits and often in comprehensible punishments whether these women are guilty or innocence. They or tactics that can be used to get innocent people to confess to crimes they didnt commit i dont even think people in the us really get that the police are allowed to lie to the person who falsely fast actually came to believe the lie that they were told about their own behavior once a false confession is taken the case is closed and nobody really can tell the difference between a good confession to them one that isnt. Really exclaimed joe biden to be president elect come on group thats not how it works fine although crowleys made that determination and we arent there yet was the election free and fair and what is the possibility have the country played the election. Will soup will sure wish to be sure but. How to do w. Clubbable was she who is sure to keep. Border doesnt actually matter best to put a gun by. All of those who do because those told me game we will see in the movie it is with who would seem the most famous but is the most severe some of put it in your speech come on and use the im. The 20th century was doing in a revolution the Great Depression and world war the 21st century of mental illness. Those arent my words thats what surfaced some psychiatry to tell us the only question is. It is a fact. Or no. I hope that all the steps we have taken recently will lead to the establishment of a long term peace for the benefits of azerbaijan and armenia russian peacekeepers head to the nagornokarabakh conflict zone after a peace deal is a or media. Have been met with resistance in your. Protest