Transcripts For RT Documentary 20240713 : vimarsana.com

A lot of women here like her said. That come guilty and that sort of not just myself it should fall just the 1st. Times where you just wanted to end it theres many many times for rehearsal years 30 years which you know how you dont wake up again. To let me die its hard to ponder value for yourself when you know you have no human contact so anybody gets convicted of something its outrageous or it automatically. Away from that person to stop or pop at all because you dont want to be associated and theres a kind somebody to live the dream and not much and thats reporting. You need to look at the way and develop a cup and then let it go. By democracy when youre a nominee we have to wrap this up now we have to get oh oh. Well thank you so much. Thank you good luck to you too but. Like many women on death row 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 child. In 6 years she has not had one single visit from her family. The only one who continues to rights are her as her daughter jasmine. She was 17 years old when her mother was sentenced to the. Events of her any sense this nightmare haunts her 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. There is no day that goes by i dont think about her. 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 ended up. Over there when she got framed for she did it. I was a kid that had a pretty decent life. To nothing. To lower than nothing you were 17 at the time youre a student what how the stock. Dropped out. My family turned their back on me. I lived in a tent in the middle of winter time just to survive. People emailing me and said my family should be instinct. They say that. 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. Are less of. A minute. To which way for us well i phone willing to take that risk. Her mothers execution seems inevitable. Unless she can finally have a new child. 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. Years on death row convicted for plotting the murder of her husband who beat her she was released in 2015 and died in 2019 she lived in a home for battered women. This was the only place that would accept this old woman who was poor and seriously ill. After breast cancer. Acted in prison and several pneumonias she underwent a double mastectomy and lived with her spirit serious systems and when they say yesterday everything. No cancer in the bones. They had a miscarriage or for a while. Like to go you know do some traveling a you know everything. Right now well the thing is about saving money but you know what you know. And this place has helped me do that. If it wasnt for this place. I would be living under a bridge. Well you have had a lot of farce here you got your 1st cell phone yes but 1st very. 9 we got to be a part of the 1st text and found calls that later by. Now youre yes. Teaching myself. Michelle byron receives a retirement pension of 600. 00 a month and less than a year shell 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. All this can be long. I dont even get the money that you get when you leave prison. I dont even get ahead. And you are going to think were no. So now youre on your own and so i dont know. Ive come through too many obstacles. To let it get me down. 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 now she said its on the news. And on the news and i said Michelle Baron 16 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. At the last minute there wasnt going to be a trial. And thats why i couldnt understand why all of us. Everybody turned against. Us and what did they want 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 this because i had cancer i found out a month after i was finally released that i had 3rd stage breast cancer. And said that i have had years at the stage it was c. M. And they had taken a mammogram at 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 as even apology is. Wasted life and a deep sense of injustice. This is also what a judge at the mississippi Supreme Court thought. I. Was one of the 7. He believed from the start. And that she needed to be. While i was on the 2003 the majority of the judges voted to keep her conviction in place. Even though i had written. The rest of fellow judges to overturn that conviction because i thought there were problems and i thought it should be. She remained in prison. I think another 11 years or so. Has never forgotten. Which remains. Hes made a point of speaking in the media about the death penalty. People generally dont go to. Court 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 resources if you dont have those resources the chances of you being convicted. Dramatically at that point. So much. Money millions of people but their lives are all wasted. Once the sentence is pronounced it is almost impossible to reverse it. Once somebody is convicted once theres 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 its sort of like the Arnold Schwarzenegger terminator movie is not going to stop until its over ive seen cases where prosecutors have. Theres 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 why risk overturning that conviction technically today for the state of mississippi Michele Byron is still technically she is guilty. But. In exchange the state has said she served all the time that she needs to serve. Means that she cant sue the script so how much how much money which she will think its a little too much too i think its about 100000. 00 a year for each year that you serve wrongfully sort of something around there so she would be getting somewhere over a 1000000. 00 probably sheets are over 10 years on death row. More than a 1000000. 00 not counting medical expenses but how can you defend yourself when youre poor and sick and about to be executed. During our investigation we were able to verify the statements of this former Supreme Court judge virtually all women on death row are in. Had a public defender and the speedy trial. In texas another case caught our attention. Accused of killing her 2 year old daughter. Who 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. It was an accident caused by a. We went to see the body before. They brought her i mean we had that in our head and. They said she had trauma. To the head. And she had a broken arm the. Only one i. I dont believe it was but. They were i mean there was a house full of children. Kids i mean i dont know i honestly dont believe it was her. Body i mean she never disciplined these kids i remember her yelling you know but i mean the kids. In the home. Never know. Theyve been. Trying to. Because of what they want to do harm. One of their mom. And imagine going from foster care to foster care. And somebody elses. You need your mom. My sister was a good mother. Following the arrest of middle east solution 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 idea 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. 00 to start 850002 start or do we come up with that money you can sell everything and we still dont have that money do you feel that her attorneys for the trial nope not at all. Not at all. 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 lived. In nor did they investigate an accident that mariah suffered 2 days before the tragedy. With. A fall down the stairs could have been the cause of her head trauma so from here they were moving and in between that time that accident happened to me how i mean yes. Moving stuff and whatever she had. Time to abuse. The younger boys are the ones i dated. I dont even. Saw. It was just coming from the smaller children m. R. I have fallen down the stairs. 13 stairs. I mean a baby i mean she had she had no. Role or protect herself and she could have been hitting her head as she was falling down and then hit her last. They say she had a concussion to the head. Right there. Which was witnessed by a. 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. State appeals have all failed. Her last job is to appeal to the u. S. Supreme court. Shes on gainesville death row with slim chance of escaping execution. This is the 1st time shes been interviewed about this crime she has always maintained her innocence. Of the thing before. You 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 of Something Like this would. You know. Huge you feel that you stood a chance when the struggle the trial and now 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 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 there accused by me guilty of. The no. Murder in my daughter. And how many of your appeals have been and i will. Try one 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. Not. Not being able to. Say goodbye to them. In this thats. Whats your biggest regret. Oh. Im not being the mother that i should have been to my children. Being. A drug that it. Put my drugs before my children. I think 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 this and 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 as 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 their mark and 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 much what. Is the next woman on the list of those to be executed in texas. Ok all right thank you 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 this is kind of like my savior more than my mom the older. Little monster which is not sure where she ever falls mosharraf road she heard her say she was a liberal but you know it wasnt you know. To be murdered. For this is for. Im just scared its. Its. Tragic think about it because i said 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 just a few. Packets we dont see why i dont want to be counted because im scared to. Do assume youre still sealed youre not a. Problem since she was a good girl is here. Where. Theres still hope. And he settled down so. If she was executed in your future with hugo. What would it 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. Oh. How they are. When i dont mean if he says no you. Sunk in so they dont know yet but i might have to guess i mean does. The love the missing mom of this mean got to me this time i was wrong. Cheri done. Some emotions some are. Very uncertain. Are clues. Through last 12 days. 30. Rock up and the baby had i fever of 38. 30 were hoping thats. All ok. Im going to. The city of. Drive down the hill from the hollywood drill southcentral one of the most notorious and