Nearly 100 people gathered at the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Saturday for an annual rally calling for the abolition of the death penalty, as families of prisoners and former death-row inmates spoke about the risks of irreversible miscarriages of justice.
The protest has been held for 27 years by campaigners opposed to capital punishment. Speakers included people who had spent time on death row, as well as relatives of prisoners still facing execution.
Families call for an end to capital punishment
Those attending said the state should impose life imprisonment rather than execute people, arguing that wrongful convictions meant the justice system could not be trusted with an irreversible punishment.
Campaigners pointed to at least 203 people who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death before being exonerated.
Members of Melissa Lucio’s family travelled from Houston to support the rally. Lucio was convicted over the death of her two-year-old daughter, but her relatives and lawyers maintain that she is innocent.
Her cousin said the family hoped the demonstration would persuade officials to release people they believed had been wrongly condemned. “I’m hoping that they take it away,” she said of the death penalty.
Lucio remains on death row after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a lower court’s finding that she was actually innocent in September. Her legal team has said it will pursue further appeals in the federal courts.
Criticism of planned Nidal Hasan execution livestream
The rally also focused on plans to livestream the military execution of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted over the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.
Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood on 3 December. The US Army has confirmed the execution date, while the Pentagon has said the punishment will be broadcast live.
One speaker at the Austin rally questioned why the execution should be streamed, describing the proposal as a theatrical display of violence. Families and campaigners said that, regardless of the crime, no one should be put to death.
