The case brings to light the problem of false confessions. It is difficult to estimate how many there are, but according to data from the Innocence Project, which fights judicial errors, of four people falsely convicted and exonerated thanks to DNA evidence, one had confessed to the crime.
In homicide cases, the figure rises to 60%, according to Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
And someone who, like Lucio, has experienced trauma and violence, is “less resilient, more likely to give in, has less tolerance for the stress of an interrogation,” and is therefore more likely to accept responsibility for a crime he has not committed. committed, he said.
It is unusual for women to be executed in the United States: just 17 in more than 1,500 since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
On Friday, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an organ of the Organization of American States (OAS), urged the United States to refrain from executing Lucio and to guarantee “detention conditions consistent with international standards.”
In a statement, he recalls that Lucio has been the beneficiary of precautionary measures since February 18 and “calls again to eliminate the death penalty, or failing that, to impose a moratorium on executions as a step towards its gradual abolition.”