Category: Opinion

Fifty-three-year-old Melissa Lucio was convicted in 2008 for murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. On Feb. 15, 2007, Mariah fell down a flight of stairs that led to the family’s apartment. Although Mariah didn’t appear to be injured at the time, she died two days later.

Prosecutors accused Melissa, who was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death.

Her execution date is set for April 27. Although a growing number of advocates, politicians, and even jury members from the trial are calling for her execution order to be withdrawn.

Two hours after Mariah died, Lucio—who was pregnant with twins at the time—was being interrogated by police who accused her of abusing and killing her daughter. According to court filings, the police used coercive interrogation tactics that preyed on Lucio’s vulnerability.

“I guess I did it,” she eventually said, according to an Innocence Project summary of Lucio’s case.

However, Lucio’s attorneys claim that confession was not reliable.

“Melissa was subjected to a five-hour, late-night, carefully orchestrated and aggressive interrogation until, physically and emotionally exhausted, she eventually said ‘I guess I did it,’” they wrote in a February filing asking to withdraw or modify the execution date. Then district attorney, Armando Villalobos presented this to the jury as a confession, but according to Lucio’s lawyers, that’s not the whole story.

“Because the trial court excluded Melissa’s proffered expert testimony, the jury would not hear that Melissa’s long history of sexual and physical abuse made her especially vulnerable to the aggressive, intimidating, and psychological interrogation tactics the male police officers deployed,” the filing said. “When the interrogation began, Melissa had been awake for roughly fourteen hours. She was also pregnant with twins. Interrogators provided her nothing to eat and allowed her no sleep. Some of the interrogation was recorded on three videos that were played to the jury on the first day of trial. Some interactions between the interrogators and Melissa either were not recorded, or those recordings have been suppressed.”

Prosecutors said that Mariah’s injuries, including the bruises on her body at the time of her death and the fact that she had suffered a broken arm, could only be the result of abuse at Melissa’s hands.

The filing adds the jury was never given evidence that the bruises on Mariah’s body were the result from “rough play” with her siblings. Nor did the jury see an autopsy that revealed that Mariah “showed signs of a blood coagulation disorder, which causes profuse bruising throughout the body.”

A pediatric surgeon who reviewed the evidence said that “there is nothing about [Mariah’s] fracture that indicates that it was the result of an intentional act or abuse,” and that it was a common type of injury among toddlers who fall from standing height, according to the Innocence Project.

Notably, Villalobos—the DA who prosecuted Lucio—was convicted of bribery and extortion in 2014 and is currently serving a 13-year federal prison sentence. According to the Innocence Project, he pursued the death penalty for Lucio “likely because he was seeking re-election at the time and thought that such a ‘win’ would earn him votes.”

Bill Murray is at the center of an ongoing investigation after allegations of “inappropriate behavior” forced the suspension of his upcoming film “Being Mortal” Monday.

A complaint filed last week led to a halt in production and Searchlight Studios gave official notice of the movie’s suspension to all associated cast and crew members of the film.

Seth Rogen was to co-star alongside Bill Murray in “Being Mortal,” and comedian Aziz Ansari who wrote the script, was set to make his directorial debut, as well as star in the film.

Details of Murray’s alleged “inappropriate behavior” are unclear as is Murray’s future involvement in the movie.

The 71-year-old “Saturday Night Live” alum has faced allegations of misconduct in the past, including a complaint by actress Lucy Liu about “unacceptable” comments he made during the filming of “Charlie’s Angels.”

In addition, Murray had a physical altercation with Chevy Chase in 1978, as well as an ashtray-throwing incident between Murray and actor Richard Dreyfuss while filming “What About Bob.” Dreyfuss has since described Murray as a “drunken bully.”

Principal photography for “Being Mortal” had begun on March 28, and the film was originally scheduled for release in 2023.

Representatives from Searchlight Studios have been unable to provide further details as the investigation remains ongoing.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a clandestine trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The meeting, which was intended to be hush-hush until it was over, hit a snag when Zelenskyy himself leaked news of the upcoming trip. Blinken and Austin were already on the way to Poland when Zelenskyy announced they would be arriving in Ukraine at a conference on Saturday.

The U.S. decided to continue with the visit despite the leak, making Blinken and Austin the highest-level U.S. officials to visit Ukraine since Russia began its invasion in February.

The trip was planned as a show of solidarity from the U.S. to Ukraine and followed visits from several Western leaders. During the visit, Blinken promised the return of U.S. diplomats within the week, according to a senior State Department official.

Blinken and Austin told Zelenskyy that the U.S. would provide new, additional aid to Ukraine.

The latest aid includes over $300 million in foreign military financing, as well as a $165 million sale for ammunition.

“He [Zelenskyy] has the mindset that they want to win, and we have the mindset that we want to help them win,” Austin said Monday during a press conference in Poland.

Blinken reiterated that the trip was “an opportunity to demonstrate directly our strong ongoing support for the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people.”

“This was, in our judgment, an important moment to be there, to have face-to-face conversations in detail,” he added.

Austin shared with reporters that the objective is to see Russia “weakened.”

“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Austin declared. “So it has already lost a lot of military capability. And a lot of its troops, quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.”

Writer Chang Che captured a photograph of a 95-year-old woman fighting off six Chinese workers with her cane Tuesday.

Che posted a photograph to Twitter that shows six people in hazmat suits walking away from a woman wielding a cane with the caption “I’ve never witnessed this level of badassery: 95-year old grandma in Shanghai tests positive for Covid. About to get sent away but fends off SIX workers in haz-mats with her cane until they give up.”

Shortly after, Chinese authorities sealed the woman’s apartment with steel plates, which she later tore off so she could take a walk around the neighborhood. “The next day, after THREE more attempts, they finally get her to the quarantine camps… oh nvm… she jumped the wall…” he continued.

Che also shared a video of the woman defying the hazmat suit brigade.

Chinese authorities have been forcing their way into the homes of individuals suspected of testing positive for COVID-19 and dragging them to quarantine camps. Many of those abducted by Chinese authorities are senior citizens.

China has implemented a “Zero Covid” policy and is trying to remove all COVID-positive individuals from their communities in an attempt to end the spread of the virus. Reports have suggested that authorities have taken seniors but left behind medication and required medical equipment.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ chief of staff Tina Flournoy will be leaving the administration and replaced by top adviser Lorraine Voles in the latest shakeup in Harris’ office, according to the White House.

Voles was brought into Harris’ office by Flournoy last summer, as the vice president faced negative headlines for a number of staffers leaving her office.

Harris tapped Flournoy, a veteran Democratic strategist and aide to the Clintons, as her chief of staff in December 2020.

Harris, praised the departing Flournoy, calling her a “valued advisor and confidant to me and tremendous leader for the office.”

“Tina is the consummate public servant and I will continue to rely on her advice, counsel and friendship,” Harris said.

Flournoy marks the 13th departure from the vice president’s office. Harris’ deputy chief of staff, Michael Fuchs, is also leaving the White House in the coming weeks.

Harris’ national security adviser, Nancy McEldowney, stepped down last month and her spokesperson, Symone Sanders, left the White House in December.

One of the three men charged with the fentanyl-related death of Mac Miller received a 10-year and 11-month jail sentence Monday after pleading guilty to one count of distributing fentanyl.

Ryan Reavis supplied the oxycodone pills to Miller’s drug dealer, Cameron Petit, that were found to be the cause of Miller’s death on September 7, 2018. Reavis was angling for a lesser jail term of just 5 years, claiming to have only been the middle man. The prosecution had requested a 12.5 year prison sentence.

Miller’s death prompted an investigation into the origin of the drugs he’d ingested, which ultimately led to the identification of three men. Stephen Walter is said to have been the drug runner, Cameron Petit was identified as being the drug dealer and police believe Reavis supplied the lethal counterfeit pills. However, Reavis told the court that he did not know the pills were counterfeit. It is believed that Walter ordered Reavis to supply the pills to Miller’s dealer, Petit.

“He would never knowingly take a pill with fentanyl, ever. He wanted to live and was excited about the future. The hole in my heart will always be there,” Meyer’s mother said.

Petit and Walter have not yet been sentenced.

With the help of a little dog, Ukrainian defense personnel are detecting and eliminating explosive devices.

On Monday, April 4, the State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations posted a video to Twitter depicting the efforts of its demining squad.

Patron, a uniformed Russell Terrier in the northern city of Chernihiv, about 91 miles from Kyiv, has been sniffing out undetonated bombs at woodland search sites.

The explosives were left by Russian troops, according to the Ukrainian military service.

“Be aware, look under your feet,” the agency said in its tweet.

Patron appears to be leading the demining crew into the woods in a 47-second video released by Ukraine’s State Service for Emergency Situations.

Patron comes to a halt and barks to alert his human handler when he detects something odd. Patron is also seen digging in the dirt with a demining professional in the footage.

According to Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” Patron is responsible for the discovery of 90 explosive devices in the area.

According to the American Kennel Club, dogs have been utilized to carry out activities in battle zones around the world for centuries, but there was a substantial surge in canine aid during World War I.

A group of climate activists who walked onto a busy highway in Washington, D.C., bringing rush hour traffic to a halt, prevented a man from being with his wife as she gave birth.

The activists said they were blocking traffic on I-395 Wednesday morning in an effort to convince President Joe Biden to declare a “climate emergency,” according to video taken by journalist Ford Fischer. The group has successfully blocked the highway on two other occasions over the past two weeks, Fischer tweeted.

“We are asking President Biden to declare a climate emergency and to stop all extraction on federal and indigenous land,” Jon, one of the protesters, told Fischer.

“We have a brief and rapidly closing window to address the climate crisis,” he added. “The government isn’t listening.”

The activist argued that the Biden administration is acting in condradiction to its climate rhetoric by recently encouraging new oil drilling. The White House, though, has repeated a debunked argument that energy producers can drill for fossil fuels on 9,000 unused leases, rather than hold new lease sales.

Fischer’s video showed the moment when the activists walked onto the highway as cars sped by. The group met angry drivers and the honking of horns as drivers realized what was happening.

One driver got out of his car and said that while he agreed with their message, they were preventing him from getting to his wife who was in labor.

“I gotta get to my wife, she’s pregnant. What the f**k?” the man yelled at the protesters. “I need to get to her to have my child.”

The man told the activists to leave the highway and go speak with lawmakers directly. One of the activists argued with the man that they were blocking traffic on behalf of the man’s unborn child.

“That’s why we are doing this because we care about everybody,” the unnamed protester said. “It’s really a bad situation. We only have a few years.”

Police officers with the Metropolitan Police Department eventually removed the group from the busy highway, though three officers were forced to carry one woman off the road.

“This is how women got the vote, this is how civil rights was passed,” one of the protesters told Fischer as the activists were being arrested and put into police cruisers.

During a lecture at the University of Virginia on Tuesday, former Vice President Mike Pence hinted at a possible presidential bid in 2024. At a Young America’s Foundation (YAF) gathering at the campus on Tuesday, Pence was the featured speaker. Pence talked for over an hour, criticizing President Biden’s administration for caving into “wokism” and fielding student questions.

One student got straight to the point saying, “I was just wondering if you’re planning to run in 2024 for president.”

“I’ll keep you posted,” was Pences’ only response.

Pence also addressed the recent controversy surrounding transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who, despite being biologically male, won the women’s NCAA championship in the 500-yard freestyle race in March.

Emma Weyant, a UVA swimmer, was the runner-up to Thomas.

“Emma Weyant won that race,” Pence said to a student who asked about the event.

“I know that in his State of the Union address President Biden promised to stand for the God-given right of men to compete in women’s sports,” Pence said. “But common sense needs to reign and it will reign. And we need to defend the integrity of women’s sports in America for the benefit of women everywhere.”

The former vice president was also asked about how he would react if one of his own children were to come out as homosexual, to which he responded: “I would look them in the eye and tell them ‘I love you.’”

He went on to say that the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize homosexual marriage has sparked a conflict between the gay community and religious Americans’ First Amendment rights.

Pence also spoke about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, praising Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his leadership and urged students to help Ukrainians in need.

Pence also urged Congress and the Biden administration to boost military aid to Ukraine and tighten penalties on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the comments she made on Fox concerning News White House correspondent Peter Doocy on Friday after saying he sounded like a “stupid son of a b***h.”

“Full video shows I also told a story about Peter’s grace last night and made very clear I was not being critical of him or any reporter at Fox, and instead was critical of the slant of some Fox topics,” she said. “He is doing his job. I am doing mine. We debate. We disagree. I respect that.”

Psaki said Fox News’ topics can “make anyone look like a stupid son of a bitch” during a Thursday live recording of “Pod Save America.” Afterward, she complimented Doocy for his graciousness to President Joe Biden after being called a “stupid son of a bitch” on a hot mic in January.

The president called Doocy personally within an hour of the incident to explain that the remarks were “nothing personal.” Doocy said he “appreciated” the president for reaching out.

“He said, ‘it’s nothing personal, pal,’” Doocy said on Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “I told him that I appreciated him reaching out. Hey, Sean, the world is on the brink of, like, World War III. With all the stuff going on, I appreciate that the president took a couple minutes out this evening while he was still at the desk to give me a call and clear the air, but I don’t need anybody to apologize to me.”

CNN’s Brian Stelter defended Psaki saying her remarks were directed at Fox News, not Doocy personally. He noted that Doocy has a tendency to “advance right-wing talking points” and that the network pushes narratives that “are sometimes nonsense.”

“She didn’t really criticize him directly, she was really criticizing Fox News as an organization,” Stelter said on Friday.

Fox News issued a statement Friday in Doocy’s defense by calling him a “terrific reporter” whose job it is to “elicit the truth.”

“In his role as White House correspondent, Peter Doocy’s job is to elicit truth from power for the American public. His questions are his own, he is a terrific reporter and we are extremely proud of his work,” the statement said.