AMERICAN MISOGYNY

Oklahoma’s New Abortion Ban Shows How Precarious Reproductive Rights Are

"We don't really know what would happen to laws like this, but it could absolutely be the case that laws like this are legal post-Dobbs."


Stephanie K. Baer
BuzzFeed News Reporter

 April 12, 2022, 

Sean Murphy / AP
Abortion rights advocates gather outside the Oklahoma Capitol on April 5, 2022.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday signed into law legislation banning nearly all abortions at any point during pregnancy — a flagrant violation of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that made the procedure legal nationwide 50 years ago.

The Oklahoma law, one of the harshest abortion bans enacted since Roe, will likely be blocked by the courts — for now — because states cannot ban abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb. But it shows how precarious reproductive rights in the US have become and how emboldened anti-abortion lawmakers already are as the country waits for the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the biggest challenge to abortion rights in decades. In that case, which will be decided in the coming weeks or months, the state of Mississippi is calling on the justices to overturn Roe and uphold its previability ban. If the court does either — or both — even extreme laws like Oklahoma's could become constitutional.

"We don't really know what would happen to laws like this, but it could absolutely be the case that laws like this are legal post-Dobbs," Aziza Ahmed, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, told BuzzFeed News.

Under Oklahoma's law, performing an abortion would be a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. The only exception to the ban is in the case of a medical emergency in which the life of the pregnant person is in danger.

If it is not blocked by the courts, the law will take effect 90 days after the state legislature adjourns at the end of May.

Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Mississippi's last clinic in the Dobbs case, said on Tuesday that the organization planned to sue Oklahoma to stop this law from taking effect.

“Oklahoma’s total abortion ban is blatantly unconstitutional and will wreak havoc on the lives of people seeking abortion care within and outside the state," Northup said in a statement. "We’ve sued the state of Oklahoma ten times in the last decade to protect abortion access and we will challenge this law as well to stop this travesty from ever taking effect.”


Sue Ogrocki / AP
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks during a news conference in Oklahoma City on May 17, 2021.

For years, laws like Oklahoma's and other previability bans have been struck down by the courts because under Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey — the 1992 ruling that said restrictions cannot place an “undue burden” on access — states cannot ban abortion before the point of viability, which is usually around 24 weeks. In 2016, then–Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin vetoed a similar bill that would have made performing abortions punishable by up to three years in prison, saying it wouldn't survive a legal challenge.

But with Donald Trump's election in 2016, anti-abortion activists were able to get the issue back in front of the Supreme Court, which now has a 6–3 conservative majority. And since the justices allowed Texas's six-week ban to take effect last year and indicated during Dobbs arguments that they may be open to overturning Roe or at least chipping away at the viability line, conservative lawmakers have rushed to pass new abortion bans and restrictions.

Despite the wave of anti-abortion legislation making its way through statehouses across the South and the Midwest, the passage of Oklahoma's bill last week caught some observers off guard. The bill, which was passed by the state Senate last year, was added to the state House of Representatives agenda on April 4. It passed the next day in a 70–14 vote with no debate.

What makes Oklahoma's law so extreme is that it prohibits abortions "from conception," as its author, Republican state Sen. Nathan Dahm, proudly said in a tweet, and it also threatens severe penalties for performing the procedure.

"Even the Texas law allows abortions up to six weeks, and by outlawing it entirely and creating criminal penalties for physicians we're basically in the pre-Roe era," Ahmed said, adding that even with the exception, providers will likely be hesitant to perform the procedure out of fear of being criminally punished.

"Needless to say, this is not a good environment in which to provide reproductive healthcare," she said.

And although the law specifically states that a pregnant person cannot be charged "with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child," advocates and experts don't trust that officials won't arrest or prosecute people who self-manage their abortions. In Texas, a 26-year-old woman was recently arrested and charged for being involved in a "self-induced abortion." She was later released and prosecutors acknowledged she did not violate any laws.

"Maybe as the laws stand they won't criminalize people who have abortions, but that doesn't mean they won't add it later," said Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and executive director of the reproductive justice nonprofit group We Testify. "The anti-abortion movement also used to say we don’t want to criminalize abortion, we just want to make it safer. I mean, that was a fucking lie, right?"


Evelyn Hockstein / Reuter
Patient care coordinator Jennifer Reince answers nonstop phone calls at the Trust Women clinic in Oklahoma City on Dec. 6, 2021.

The signing of Oklahoma's law comes at a time when the state's four abortion clinics have been overwhelmed by patients traveling from Texas. Since SB 8 took effect in September, Oklahoma has provided abortions to 45% of Texans who have sought care elsewhere, more than any other state, according to a recent report by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

Bracey Sherman called the timing of Oklahoma's bill "super, super cruel" in light of the increased demand for abortion care from residents of its neighboring state.

"Oklahoma saw that they were becoming a place where Texans were seeking out abortions, and instead of welcoming and supporting them, just said, 'OK, great, we’re going to turn you away,'" Bracey Sherman told BuzzFeed News. "I'm sorry, what kind of anti-Christian ... being turned away at the end story is that? It's just wild."

Texas and Oklahoma are also among 13 states that have passed so-called trigger bans, which are designed to take effect immediately or through quick state action if Roe falls. But if the 1973 ruling isn't explicitly overturned, Oklahoma's new law gives legislators a chance to test how far they can go to ban abortion entirely, said Tamya Cox-Touré, executive director of the ACLU of Oklahoma and cochair of the Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice.

"I can only assume it's a matter of them trying to do everything they can to ensure that abortion access is denied in Oklahoma," Cox-Touré told BuzzFeed News.


Stephanie Baer is a reporter with BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.
Contact Stephanie K. Baer at stephanie.baer@buzzfeed.com.

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PRISON NATION USA
Arizona death row prisoner's lawyers say clemency board stacked against him

Clarence Dixon was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002 for the 1978 rape and murder of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin, an Arizona State University student.

 File Photo courtesy of the Arizona attorney general's office


April 12 (UPI) -- Attorneys for an Arizona death row prisoner have filed a challenge to the state's clemency board, which they say won't give their client a fair consideration because it includes too many former law enforcement officers.

Clarence Dixon, 66, is scheduled to be executed May 11 for the 1978 rape and murder of 21-year-old Deana Bowdoin, an Arizona State University student.

Dixon's attorneys said Monday that the makeup of the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency is stacked against him because three of the five members previously served as law enforcement officers. State law, however, requires that "no more than two members from the same professional discipline shall be members of the board at the same time."

According to the board's website, Sal Freni served with the Phoenix Police Department for 30 years, Louis Quinonez was a federal law enforcement officer for 27 years and Michael Johnson worked on the PPD for 21 years.

There is currently one vacancy and the other two members -- Mina Mendez and Frank Riggs -- are a former lawyer, and former businessman and U.S. congressman, respectively.

"Mr. Dixon is entitled to a fair clemency hearing before an impartial clemency board," Joshua Spears, Dixon's attorney, said in a statement emailed to UPI.

"If the board proceeds with three of its four members being law enforcement officers, it will violate Mr. Dixon's right to a fair hearing that complies with due process and the plain requirements of Arizona law."

Dixon's lawyers also filed a motion in court last week saying their client wasn't mentally competent enough to be executed. They said his execution would violate the 8th Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment, because he has a "well-documented history" of paranoid schizophrenia.

They said two court-appointed psychiatrists found Dixon to be incompetent as part of an unrelated assault case. Then-Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sandra Day O'Connor found Dixon not guilty by reason of insanity in that case.

They said delusions caused by the mental illness keep him from having a rational understanding of his punishment.

The motion filed Friday challenges Arizona's competency statute, which Dixon's attorneys say is in conflict with the federal constitutional standard.

Arizona officials announced plans to set Dixon's execution date in April 2021. At the time, his lawyer, Dale Baich, said his client experienced "chronic neglect" as a child and has had mental illness for decades. He said the murder case rested "almost entirely" on DNA evidence and that other evidence was inconclusive or excluded Dixon.

Arizona last carried out an execution on July, 23, 2014, that of Joseph Wood. It took 15 doses of a new combination of drugs -- midazolam and hydromorphone -- and 2 hours for Wood to die.

He was the second inmate to be given the two-drug cocktail after Arizona lost its European supplier of pentobarbital. The European Union voted in 2011 to prohibit the sale of the drug to the United States because of its use in executions.

After Wood's death, the state decided to no longer use the midazolam and hydromorphone combination of drugs, effectively implementing a moratorium on executions until an alternate drug cocktail could be legally secured.

PRISON NATION USA

Texas prosecutor may temporarily spare death row prisoner many believe is innocent

LONG READ 
By Jolie McCullough, The Texas Tribune

John Lucio (C) tears up as he speaks at a press conference at Dallas City Hall on Friday concerning the future of his mother, Melissa Lucio, who is on death row. The family is traveling the state and joining state representatives and supporters in fighting for her freedom.

 Photo by Shelby Tauber/The Texas Tribune

April 12 (UPI) -- At a combative legislative hearing, the Cameron County district attorney indicated Tuesday he may step in and stop Melissa Lucio's April 27 execution, creating a new level of uncertainty in what many believe is the case of an innocent woman facing lethal injection.

Although he was not district attorney when Lucio was convicted, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz did request the execution date and has the power to withdraw the request. During a heated exchange with a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushing to halt Lucio's execution, Saenz initially stated he would not intervene.

As outrage has built to a crescendo over Lucio's case, Saenz has previously stated -- and reaffirmed in the hearing -- that he stood by the process that led to Lucio's conviction and the many court rulings since that have upheld her death sentence.

But after about an hour of urging from the lawmakers, Saenz's stance shifted. He said he believes his intervention will be unnecessary because the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will likely stop Lucio's execution. If it doesn't, he said he would, though he didn't provide details.

"If defendant Lucio does not get a stay by a certain day," he said, "then I will do what I have to do and stop it."

Because of Saenz's conflicting statements, and without any court motions or rulings, it's still not certain Lucio's execution will be stopped. Lucio's lawyer, Tivon Schardl, seemed skeptical outside the committee room but said he would take Saenz at his word. Saenz's office did not immediately respond to questions following the hearing.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican and chair of the interim Criminal Justice Reform Committee, said the lawmakers would hold Saenz to his word.

"My understanding of his remarks to the committee were that if we don't get a stay or clemency issued ... then he will step in and withdraw his request for an execution date," Leach said after the hearing. "That was unequivocal to the committee, and we got it on tape."

Reasonable doubts have lingered over Lucio's guilt since the day 14 years ago she was convicted of murdering her daughter, questions that will remain even if her April execution date is canceled.

It's widely debated whether the fatal head trauma that killed 2-year-old Mariah Alvarez was an accident, and, if it wasn't, who inflicted the injury. The case against Lucio was built almost entirely around an ambiguous "confession" obtained after hours of police interrogation, and the judge at her trial barred expert testimony that might have explained why she would admit to police things she didn't do.

For now, Texas plans to execute Lucio in two weeks. She would become the first Latina executed by the state in the modern era of the death penalty and the first woman killed by Texas since 2014.

As the 53-year-old's execution date nears, concerns about her possible innocence -- greatest among them whether Mariah's death was caused by abuse or an accidental fall down the stairs -- have only been amplified.

Forestalling Lucio's impending execution has become an international cause, her name and picture splashed across newspapers and websites around the world. An ever-growing lineup of her former jurors, foreign ambassadors, celebrities and more than half of the Texas House of Representatives has urged the state parole board and governor to spare Lucio's life.

There are too many unaddressed problems with the police investigation and her trial to carry out her death sentence without more investigation, her supporters insist.

State Rep. Victoria Neave Criado speaks at a rally organized at Dallas City Hall to free Melissa Lucio, a Latina mother on death row who's execution date is set to April 27, 2022. Photo by Shelby Tauber/The Texas Tribune

"The trial left me thinking Melissa Lucio was a monster, but now I see her as a human being who was made to seem evil because I didn't have all the evidence I needed to make that decision," Melissa Quintanilla, the foreperson on Lucio's jury, said in an affidavit to the parole board this week. "Ms. Lucio deserves a new trial and for a new jury to hear this evidence."

Four more of Lucio's 12 jurors have also asked the parole board and the governor to stop Lucio's execution.

Outside of court intervention or a motion from Saenz, Lucio's execution can be stopped if the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends either changing her sentence from death to life in prison or postponing the execution date for up to 120 days. Gov. Greg Abbott would have to accept the board's recommendation, which is not expected until two days before Lucio's April 27 execution date. Abbott also has the power on his own to delay the execution for 30 days, but he has never exercised that authority in a death penalty case during his time in office.

Pressure has also been mounting on Saenz to withdraw Lucio's death warrant. Before Tuesday's hearing, he indicated he did not intend to halt the execution.

"Melissa Lucio has already thoroughly litigated the issues raised during her defense, including the theories that her statement was coerced and that her two-year-old daughter Mariah Alvarez fell down the stairs. The jury rejected both of these arguments," Saenz said in a statement to The Texas Tribune last week. "As officers of the court and servants of our community, we cannot allow the rule of law to be suspended and substituted by a court of public opinion."

State and federal courts have dismissed Lucio's petitions at almost every step of the appeals process, which is meant to minimize the chance of a wrongful execution. For the prisoner's lawyers, as well as a majority of judges on a conservative federal court, some of those rejections shine a light on broader problems with the death penalty and how hard it is for courts to overturn even weak convictions.

"To these eyes, this case is a systemic failure, producing a train of injustice which only the hand of the Governor can halt," Judge Patrick Higginbotham, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan to the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in a footnote of the court's latest denial for Lucio last month.

The "confession"

In 2007, emergency personnel rushed to a Harlingen apartment newly occupied by 38-year-old Lucio, her common-law husband and nine of her 12 children. The family had called 911 after finding Mariah unresponsive in the bedroom where she had been sleeping, according to statements given to police. The toddler wasn't breathing, and her body was covered with bruises and what police believed to be a bite mark. An X-ray revealed her arm had recently been broken.

The medical examiner later concluded that Mariah was severely beaten and ruled her death a homicide caused by blunt force head trauma. At least one other pathologist who has examined the evidence since disagrees with the definitive finding of abuse and homicide.

The signs of child abuse led police to believe Mariah was murdered, and her mother -- thought to be the person most often home alone with the child -- was the prime suspect. The night of her daughter's death, Lucio told police Mariah had fallen down the steps at their old apartment a couple days earlier. She said she only saw the aftermath, so didn't know how many stairs Mariah had fallen down. At first, the child seemed fine, she said, but over time became lethargic and would not eat. Under police interrogation, pregnant with twins, Lucio vehemently and repeatedly denied ever abusing her daughter.

Until she didn't.

After about three hours denying accusations hurled by multiple police investigators, Lucio began to agree with Texas Ranger Victor Escalon, who leaned in closely and spoke softly with reassurances, a video of the interrogation shows.

Lucio said she spanked Mariah but didn't think she could have caused harm to the extent shown in the pictures of her child's body that police kept pushing in front of her. When Escalon suggested Lucio bit Mariah, Lucio shook her head. When he pushed her again, she said she did. He asked her to explain.

"What do you want me to say? I'm responsible for it," Lucio said.

For about two more hours, Lucio conceded to Escalon. She said she guessed she spanked Mariah out of frustration, a word police repeatedly suggested to her. She strongly denied responsibility for what Escalon believed was a pinch mark on Mariah's vulva, but the Ranger insisted she "get it over with." She stared at the photo of her daughter's body and then commented.

"I guess I did it," she said. When he asked how, she shrugged and said "Probably pinched her or something."

Lucio consistently denied beating Mariah across the head, however, or knocking her head in any way. But police and prosecutors believed Lucio's admissions to other abuses would lead a jury to infer she had also caused the fatal injury. They were right.

John Lucio speaks at Dallas City Hall on Friday at a press conference concerning his mother's future. 

Photo by Shelby Tauber/The Texas Tribune

The conviction

At trial, Escalon told the jury he knew right away that Lucio was guilty. He saw a quiet woman, slouching her head down without asking for an attorney and arrived at his personal verdict.

"Right there and then, I knew she did something," he said from the witness box.

He could tell from her body language and demeanor that she wanted to confess, he said, adding that "if you get somebody that is being honest, they're going to be upset with you."

Escalon's testimony alarmed the lawyers who would later step in to handle Lucio's appeals. Some of the techniques used in the interrogation are known to be coercive, her lawyers said, especially with vulnerable people. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, about 12% of convictions later found to be wrongful stem at least in part from false confessions.

"You've decided the person is guilty and the whole purpose is to get a statement of admission," said Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at The Innocence Project, who said the idea of a "human lie detector" has also been renounced.

Escalon, now the South Texas regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, declined to comment for this story, instead referring questions to the Cameron County district attorney's office.

Dental molds, finger nail clippings and Lucio's ring were taken to seek matches to injuries on Mariah's body, but none of the evidence was ever tested, according to trial testimony. With Lucio's interrogation statements in hand, the prosecution didn't need to test for things like DNA, the district attorney, Armando Villalobos, said at trial.

Villalobos would later be sent to federal prison for corruption in his office that occurred around the time of Lucio's trial, found to have accepted bribes for lenient prosecutorial action.

Lucio has since recanted her admissions, and supporters have long argued they were false and coerced. Lucio's lawyers intend to file new appeals based on new expert analysis that they say shows Mariah's death, as well as much of the bruising on her body, could have been caused by a fall down the stairs and subsequent head injury.

"They just kept throwing so many words at me, and I just told them I'm responsible for Mariah's bruises," Lucio said in an interview for a documentary released in 2020. "They wanted to hear something."

Lucio's advocates also argue the jury never got to hear critical testimony that could explain why Lucio, a longtime victim of sexual abuse and domestic violence, might falsely confess. State district Judge Arturo Nelson refused to allow a social worker and psychologist to testify for Lucio's innocence defense at trial.

Nelson found the clinical social worker unqualified to analyze body language -- despite Escalon having done so without listed qualifications. And he said the psychologist's expected testimony to cast doubt on Lucio's statements wasn't relevant because Lucio never admitted in the interrogation to killing her child, only abusing her.

It was that decision that rattled one of the most conservative appeals courts in the nation.

"The trial court's conclusion was inconsistent with the reality of this trial," a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in 2019. The judges added "the State's argument that Lucio struck the fatal blow relied on an inference from the statements that she abused Mariah."

In the years that followed Lucio's convictions, Texas courts rejected her petitions alleging the witnesses' exclusion kept her from presenting a complete defense of her innocence. Testimony shedding light on Lucio's body language or explaining why an abused woman would behave a certain way under police interrogation, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found, had little relevance to how voluntary Lucio's statement was.

In the federal appellate process, it was the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that temporarily put the brakes on Lucio's sentence. In 2019, the three-judge panel determined the judge's decision was indeed harmful and intended to send the case back to lower courts to address the problem. But Texas asked for the full court to again weigh the case and, in a rare move, the judges accepted.

Ten of the court's 17 judges agreed to deny Lucio's appeal last year, with seven of those 10 joining an opinion that agreed with Nelson's exclusion of the witnesses. They wrote that the psychologist's report, which detailed what he was expected to testify, did "at no point ... come close even to hinting that any of these statements were false."

Three of the 10 denying judges, though, were still concerned with the trial judge's decision. But they believed their hands were tied by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, a controversial 1996 federal law passed in a tough-on-crime era that limits both the allowable number of death penalty appeals as well as their paths to success.

"The [dissenting judges] express well their view that there was expert testimony that, if jurors had only heard it, could have impacted the verdict. We are all, though, working within the constraints of AEDPA," wrote Judge Leslie Southwick, a President George W. Bush appointee.

"This case, though, is a clear example that justice to a defendant may necessitate a more comprehensive review of state-court evidentiary rulings than is presently permissible," he added.

Federal appeals in death penalty cases are meant to be a check against constitutional errors by state courts, according to Rob Owen, a former death penalty law instructor at the University of Texas at Austin. Since AEDPA passed, however, federal courts can't rule independently on possible violations. Instead, Owen said, they must now defer to state courts' rulings and can correct them only if the state court has "gone wildly out of bounds."

"So ever since 1996, federal courts have been more limited in their power to correct errant state court judgements, and that's what really I think what you see in Ms. Lucio's case," he said. "There's a great risk in a case like this where a court seems to be saying there appears to be maybe an innocent person about to be executed, and we can't do anything about it."

John and his wife, Michelle, after a press conference in Dallas on Friday. 

Photo by Shelby Tauber/The Texas Tribune

A family in trouble

The life of Lucio and her family has never been without strain. She was raised by a single mother with five siblings, and her mother's boyfriend sexually assaulted her for years starting at age 6, her lawyer reported at trial.

She got married at 16 and had five children before she was 24. Her husband was reportedly abusive physically and emotionally, and Lucio became addicted to cocaine.

After her husband abandoned her at age 26, she moved in with a new man, Robert Alvarez. She had seven more children, with Mariah being the youngest. Lucio's older children reported Alvarez abused Lucio, and a school principal once reported he saw Alvarez punch her while the family was homeless, living in a park, according to court records.

Child Protective Services was routinely involved in the family's life, with reports of neglect sometimes resulting in mediation, according to trial testimony. Lucio's lawyers reported three of Lucio's children were born with cocaine in their system, including Mariah.

Lucio and Alvarez's children were removed by the state when Mariah was two weeks old. During Mariah's time in foster care, she was found to have a physical disability that hampered her walking. Mariah had reportedly fallen on her head and been knocked unconscious in foster care. Lucio's oldest son said the child's disability was never disclosed to the family.

After two years of visitations and Lucio's repeated negative drug tests, the children were returned three months before Mariah died. Lucio told police she had been clean for a year on the night her daughter died.

Multiple children told police shortly after Mariah's death that Lucio never abused them, but they did point suspicion elsewhere for potential abuse or causes of the child's death.

They said the boys were often violent with each other and sometimes the girls, including Mariah. Foster parents reported the boys bit and hit each other while they were in their care, according to Lucio's appellate briefings. Lucio's second-oldest daughter, 20 at the time of Mariah's death, said she told police and Lucio's lawyers that her 15-year-old sister would abuse Mariah when their parents weren't around, including slamming her head on the ground a week before the child's death.

"I can remember the noise it made to this day," Daniella Lucio said in a sworn affidavit in 2018. She added that her 17-year-old brother and mother had tried to intervene in the sibling abuse, and she believed her mother admitted to the bruises because Lucio didn't want her daughter to get in trouble.

One of the children, 9 at the time, told investigators that he saw Mariah fall down the stairs. Two months before Mariah's death, a CPS case worker reported during a home visit that two of the teenaged girls were in the apartment alone with Mariah and her 3-year-old sister, according to a court briefing. The case worker noted with concern that the 3-year-old had started to go down the stairs unsupervised.

The reports from the children and CPS employee did not make it in front of the jurors, causing Lucio's family to denounce her defense attorney, Peter Gilman. They faulted him for not calling the children, even those who were adults at the time, to testify on behalf of their mother. Their skepticism heightened when Gilman accepted a job to work for the prosecutor about a year after the trial. Gilman did not respond to questions for this story.

Aside from Saenz's potential action, Lucio's lawyers plan to file new appeals in court. But after years of rejections, they are also putting hope in the hands of the Texas parole board

Aaron Michaels hugs John Lucio at Dallas City Hall on Friday. Michaels is the husband of Kimberly McCarthy, who was executed on death row in 2013. 

Photo by Shelby Tauber/The Texas Tribune

The parole board typically votes two days before an execution. Though it rarely recommends a delay of execution, it did so in 2019 for Rodney Reed, whose guilt is also widely doubted. The Court of Criminal Appeals stopped Reed's execution hours later, however, leaving it unknown if Abbott would have accepted the board's recommendation.

Even with the cards stacked against them, Lucio and her family remained hopeful even before Saenz's change in position. John Lucio, the prisoner's oldest son, has visited his mother regularly, he said at a public showing of the documentary on Lucio in an Austin church last month. He has been steadfast in his hope that Lucio's execution date won't come to pass, but he still has to hide his fear in his now-weekly visits to prison.

"What makes it harder is knowing that she is an innocent woman," he said last month, surrounded by family members. "Knowing the fact that we have the evidence here to show and still we can't get no help from the court systems."

John Lucio cried throughout Tuesday's hearing. Afterward, he said he wanted to believe Saenz when he said he would stop Lucio's execution if need be, but he was still asking supporters to ask the parole board and governor to take action as well.

"I want to put that faith in him and believe that he's not going to allow it to happen," he said.

RELATED More than half of the Texas House wants to stop the execution of Melissa Lucio

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Kamala Harris announces OSHA program to protect workers from heat-related injuries


During a visit to Philadelphia Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a new program by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to begin nationwide workplace heat inspections in more than 70 high-risk industries for the first time. 

Photo by Bastiaan Slabbers/UPI | License Photo

April 12 (UPI) -- Vice President Kamala Harris announced a new program by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect workers from heat-related injuries.

Speaking at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 in Philadelphia, Harris said OSHA was initiating the National Emphasis Program on heat, under which the agency will begin nationwide workplace heat inspections in more than 70 high-risk industries for the first time.

As part of the program, OSHA said it will proactively initiate inspections in indoor and outdoor work settings when the National Weather Service issues a heat warning or advisory for a local area. Also on days when the heat index is 80 degrees or higher, OSHA inspectors and compliance specialists will engage in outreach and technical assistance to keep workers safe.

"We're going to monitor to make sure that the workers aren't out there without us making sure that they are receiving all of the protections that they are entitled to receive," Harris said. "And we're not going to stop there.

In further remarks before the sheet metal workers union, Harris said that she and President Joe Biden strive "to lead the most pro-union administration in America's history," citing their efforts to protect and expand workers' rights to organize.

"Unions create stronger communities. They bring people together. And they, of course, protect workers from things like harassment and discrimination. And they give workers a voice," she said. "Put simply, unions move our nation forward. And the American people know it."

Harris cited her work on the White House Labor Task Force, which she chairs with Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, after it drafted a report in February including recommendations to make it easier for laborers to organize and bargain collectively, and called on about a dozen agencies to prioritize federal grants to create union jobs.

"This administration is not afraid to say the word union," said Walsh. "It's not afraid to say the words collective bargaining and talk about the importance of collective bargaining, about workers' rights, about health and safety protections, those things that you fight for, that you work for every single day."

Harris also touted the provisions for unions included in the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law.

"It will put thousands of union workers, carpenters, and pipefitters, and plumbers and, yes, sheet metal workers, to work across the country," she said.

Study underscores gap in sexual satisfaction for men, women

By HealthDay News

A new study underscored a well-established gap in which men climax much more often than women, which the study said can lead to lower expectations among women. 

Image by Stefano Ferrario from Pixabay

The more orgasms you have, the more you come to expect.

And the reverse is also true, according to a new study of the so-called orgasm gap -- in which men climax far more often than their female partners.

"Our expectations are shaped by our experiences, so when women orgasm less, they will desire and expect to orgasm less," said study author Grace Wetzel, a doctoral student in social psychology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

"If women do lower their expectations in this way, the more orgasm inequality may perpetuate in relationship," she said in a Rutgers news release.

RELATED Prevalence of STDs among U.S. teens underscores importance of testing

 AND THE NEED FOR SEX ED

The study included 104 sexually active heterosexual couples who were asked how often they climax, how often they'd like to and how often they expect people should have orgasms.

The study underscored a well-established gap in which men climax much more often than women, which the study said can lead to lower expectations among women.

The findings were recently published in the journal Sex Roles.

RELATED Non-hormonal pill for male contraception works in mice, study finds

UNLESS IT IS 100% SAFE MEN'S WILL NOT BE RELEASED

"The orgasm gap has implications for women's pleasure, empowerment, sexual satisfaction and general well-being," said Wetzel, who advocates for orgasm equity to her social media followers.

"Importantly, this is a gender equality issue," she said. "Women are learning to expect and be satisfied with less in their sexual interactions with men."

These findings suggest that orgasm inequality likely worsens rather than improves within a relationship when women climax less often than their male partner and then place less importance this kind of sexual pleasure.

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The Rutgers authors said it's important to increase women's expectations for and entitlement to orgasm during sex with men in order to break this cycle.

More information

There's more on sexual pleasure at the American Sexual Health Association.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

File:Reich Wilhelm The Function of the Orgasm 1973.pdf

https://monoskop.org › File:Reich_Wilhelm_The_Funct...

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In The Function of Orgasm (1927), he argued that the ability to achieve orgasm, called orgastic potency, was an essential attribute of the healthy individual; failure to dissipate pent-up sexual energy by orgasm could produce neurosis in adults.

Oakland Zoo helps orphaned mountain lion cub after rescue

By Wade Sheridan

April 13 (UPI) -- An orphaned mountain lion cub, that was rescued following a five day search, is receiving round-the-clock care at the Oakland Zoo.

The cub, who is named Rose, is four to five months old and was just in time based on her medical condition, the zoo said.



Rose was first spotted by hikers at the Thornewood Open Space Preserve in San Mateo, Calif., but wasn't captured until five days later by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Rose weighs only 8.8 pounds. A healthy female mountain lion should weigh around 30 pounds at Rose's age.

The Oakland Zoo uploaded to Twitter footage of Rose's recovery at the zoo's vet hospital.

"We are guardedly optimistic about her recovery," the zoo said.

Rose, who was suffering from starvation and dehydration, was also covered in fleas and ticks. If her blood cell count remains low, Rose will receive a blood transfusion using one of the zoo's previously rescued mountain lions.

"Based on her initial exam, it appears she hasn't eaten in weeks. She is excruciatingly thin. To survive, her body resorted to consuming its own muscle mass. She is also suffering from extreme dehydration and her temperature was so low it couldn't even be read, But she survived her first night, which was critical. We can already tell she has a feisty spirit and an obvious will to live, and we're thankful for that," VP of Veterinary Services at the Oakland Zoo, Dr. Alex Herman said in a statement.

Emaciated Mountain Lion Cub Recovering at Oakland Zoo After 5-Day Search to Save Animal

Kelli Bender
Wed, April 13, 2022

rescued mountain lion cub

Oakland Zoo

The Oakland Zoo has a wild new resident.

According to an April 12 release from the zoo, the California facility is currently caring for an emaciated mountain lion cub found in critical condition in San Mateo.

Hikers first spotted the ailing animal, estimated to be between four to five months of age, in the Thornewood Open Space Preserve on April 5. Because the baby animal appeared to be orphaned and ill, wildlife biologists from the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) worked in a joint effort to find the cub and rescue her.

The wildlife biologists set up cameras and patrols to help locate the cub, and after five days of searching, the agencies found and safely secured the orphaned baby animal. Wildlife biologists then transported the cub, named Rose by her rescuers, to the Oakland Zoo, where a veterinary team was standing by the assist the animal.

Rose arrived at the zoo covered in fleas and ticks and weighing only 8.8 pounds, over 20 pounds shy of what a healthy female mountain lion her size should weigh.

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"Based on her initial exam, it appears she hasn't eaten in weeks. She is excruciatingly thin. To survive, her body resorted to consuming its own muscle mass. She is also suffering from extreme dehydration, and her temperature was so low it couldn't even be read. But she survived her first night, which was critical. We can already tell she has a feisty spirit and an obvious will to live, and we're thankful for that," Dr. Alex Herman, the VP of veterinary services at the Oakland Zoo, said in a statement about Rose's first days at the zoo.

Currently, the zoo is continuing to provide around-the-clock care to the cub to aid with her recovery. Rose is receiving regular blood tests to determine if she will need a blood transfusion from one of the healthy, fully grown, rescued mountain lions living at the zoo since the baby animal's red blood cell count is low.

Rose is also receiving fluids and hydration intravenously at the zoo and has several keepers helping her safely regain weight through bottle feedings and small meals. The cub's positive reaction to treatment so far has the Oakland Zoo cautiously optimistic that the mountain lion will recover.

CDFW shared that mountain lion sightings are rare in California since the creatures are usually elusive. The wild cat doesn't often pose a threat to humans, but individuals who fear a wild animal is in danger or a "public safety issue" should contact local law enforcement instead of attempting to intervene.

"We appreciate the hiker and the team at Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District who alerted us to the mountain lion cub and its condition. The Santa Cruz Mountains provide good habitat for mountain lions, but it's rare to see a mountain lion because they're elusive creatures. If you see a mountain lion, do not approach it. Adult animals, when out hunting prey, may leave offspring somewhere safe for up to days at a time. Seeing a young animal by itself does not indicate that it is an orphan, and intervention is appropriate," CDFW biologist Garrett Allen said in a statement.

Rose will not be releasable, even if her recovery goes well, the Oakland zoo shared. In the wild, mountain lion cubs stay with their mothers for up to two years, learning how to hunt and survive. Without these skills, the cub cannot survive on their own.

The Oakland Zoo and CDFW will work together to find Rose a good home when the time is right, likely at another Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited zoo.

This is the eighteenth orphaned mountain lion cub Oakland Zoo rehabilitated with help from CDFW since 2017. Three of the felines, Coloma, Toro, and Silverado, stayed at the Oakland Zoo after their recovery and can be seen at the zoo's California Trail section.

Officials rush to evacuate large predators from besieged Kharkiv zoo


Alexander Feldman, founder of the Feldman Ecopark in Kharkiv, Ukraine, has been working to evacuate animals from his zoo since Russia invaded the Eastern European country early this month. Photo courtesy of Feldman Ecopark

April 12 (UPI) -- Officials at a zoo in the besieged northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv said they're attempting to evacuate large predators from the facility amid Russian shelling.

Five large lions, a cub and a jaguar were among those evacuated from Feldman Ecopark on Monday, but officials said Tuesday represents a "decisive day" in the struggle to save the dangerous animals from the war as they will attempt to remove five bears and three tigers from the facility.

"If the situation with shelling allows, the rescue of the predators will be over," the zoo said.

The zoo began to remove large predators from the territory of the park early this month after Russian shelling destroyed enclosures and critical infrastructure. Alexander Feldman, the zoo's founder, told UPI in an email Tuesday that nearly 100 of its animals have been killed in the war, including nine red deer, two orangutans and a chimpanzee as well as four fallow deer, two bison, three welsh goats and "a large number of big cats."

Three staff members were also killed in the shelling and two have gone missing, he said.


 Photo courtesy of Feldman Ecopark


The entire 140-acre park that houses about 5,000 animals of 300 species has been affected by the war with enclosure infrastructure, its recreation area and administrative buildings all but destroyed.

Part of its internal roads have also been littered with unexploded shells and rockets, making it difficult to estimate the extent of the damage, explained Feldman, who had earlier this month declared that "Feldman Ecopark no longer exists" and that getting large predators out was now their greatest concern.

"Their enclosures miraculously still retain their integrity, but one more shelling -- and the lions, tigers, bears, distraught with fear, may be free and go toward Kharkov or to nearby villages," Feldman said in the early March statement. "We cannot allow this."

The operation to evacuate animals from the facility is a complex and dangerous multi-stage process that requires considerable effort and time.

Each animal is transported via a medium-sized truck as anything larger would be a target for drone strikes and they can't stay on the property more than a few hours.

In total, 40% of the animals have been relocated so far with more than a thousand still needing to be evacuated, Feldman said.

"We will not give up, because the humane treatment of animals is what makes us human."

Over the weekend, the park posted to its website a video of three men seen attempting to move a sedated white lion into what appears to be a metal transport container.

In a separate post, it said it evacuated cheetahs from their aviary shortly before it was destroyed in a bombing. If officials had waited any longer, the animals could have been killed or escaped, creating not only a dangerous situation for the felines but for the humans who find them, it said.

"Now they are doing well: They began to settle in their temporary dwelling near Poltava," the statement said.

If the officials are successful in evacuating the last of the large predators from the park, zoo officials said they will begin to remove camels, Siberian ibex, markor and other large hoofed animals to safety.

"We work to save them every day and not a single animal will be left to their fate, be it a pig, a tiger or a bear," it said. "Our team has a firm mood: We will not abandon anyone. All animals will be saved."

In a statement on Monday, the zoo said nearly 4,000 people over the past week alone have provided assistance for the evacuation, treatment and supply of food to Feldman Ecopark animals with donations coming in from all regions of Ukraine, as well as foreign nations, with some large donations being made anonymously in cryptocurrencies.

The mayors of cities, animal protection organizations and those who own small zoos or farms have also reached out to Feldman Ecopark, offering to house animals evacuated from Ukraine, but the park said it prefers to try and keep the animals in the country.

Park director Vitaly Ilchenko selects where the animals will be housed based on logistics, including feed delivery and veterinary services, while attempting to minimize the time they spend in cages for transport as it compounds the stress the animals are under from the Russian bombing.

However, Feldman Ecopark is not the only zoo threatened by the war Russia launched against Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The European Association of Zoos and Aquariums on its website states funds have been given to zoos in the cities of Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lutsk and Mykolaiv, as well as to the Askania Nova biosphere reserve, Odessa Biopark and Rivne Zoo, among others.

Between the start of the war and Tuesday, the EAZA said it has raised more than $1.1 million for the Ukrainian animals from 101 of its member and other institutions and more than 10,400 individual donors.

The organization said the Russian invasion presents unique problems for Ukrainian zoos and animals reserves while Russian forces and sanctions limit options available to aid them.

Its funding protocol has been divided into three phases that are dictated by the progress of the war

During Phase 1: Primary crisis phase, the current phase, the goal is to provide funds to zoos so to cover food and water and other primary care for their animals while helping to move them to safety if possible.

For Phase 2: Secondary crisis phase, the EAZA will need to consider whether the war will persist and if so, provide the facilities with funds for long-term care.

Phase 3: Recovery phase will be initiated once the war is over or fighting is confined to areas away from zoos. Then, money will be dispersed to facilities to rebuild.

The war that nears two months old came under swift condemnation from not only world leaders but animal rights groups and organizations as well.

The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums issued a statement in mid-March warning that the "escalating and indiscriminate violence" of the Russian side included attacks against zoos and their staff, damaging their ability to provide welfare to animals in their care.

"In the spirit of world peace, WAZA calls on its members to immediately cease partnering with the Russian Federation's government and to restrict collaboration with Russian members to specific conservation and animal welfare efforts," it said.

Feldman told UPI that the sooner the war ends the sooner the park will start to rebuild.

"The evacuated animals are with our partners, and we will be able to return to them the park," he said.

But in the meantime, the park will require all the assistance from the international community it can get, he said.

"We need help and support," he said.

Resentment of the West driving Vladimir Putin's barbarism in Ukraine

Graves with bodies of civilians, who according to local residents were killed by Russian soldiers in the town of Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, on April 4. Ukraine and Western nations accused Russian troops of war crimes after the discovery of the mass graves and civilians who were apparently executed near Kyiv. 

Photo by Vladyslav Musienko/UPI | License Photo



By Harlan Ullman, Arnaud de Borchgrave Distinguished Columnist

April 13 (UPI) -- What is driving Russian President Vladimir Putin and his unconscionable, barbaric invasion of Ukraine? Is Putin in control of his emotions or is he irrational? Here are some possible answers.

First, the West never fully comprehended the depth of Putin's resentment and animosity toward the United States, NATO and the European Union until it was too late. Both grew like a cancer that probably began during George W. Bush's first term.

As acting president in 2000, Putin wanted to align more closely with the West and the United States. But Bush made four decisions that proved to be strategically disastrous while also convincing Putin that America was untrustworthy. Bush cancelled the anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2001 and then deployed Aegis Ashore in Poland and Romania, overriding Putin's strong objections. His administration refused to listen to Putin after Sept. 11 on Afghanistan, rejecting Russian advice. He repeated this rejection of Putin's counsel before the 2003 Iraq invasion. And with his 2008 Bucharest casual comment about granting NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, he ultimately metastasized this cancer.

Indeed, no one listened to Putin's outburst at the 2007 Munich Security Conference that, in retrospect, was a last warning.

Second, about Ukraine, Putin and his leadership have allowed this cancerous animosity toward the West and the United States to become the foundations for the "special military operation." The bulk of the Russian people accept this rationale at least for the time being. Ironically, while a five-year jail term for any Russian calling this operation a war is seen here as a sign of a country out of control, that practice is not confined to Russia. During WWI, America's Sedition and Espionage Acts detained citizens for merely criticizing Army uniforms.

Thus, from this perspective, Putin's actions, however despicable, should not be surprising. For example, a majority of Americans supported the 2003 Iraq invasion, believing that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. And how long did Americans also support the Afghan war? And we also need to understand that the Russian definition of "Nazi" is not Hitlerian. A "Nazi" is a non-Russian Ukrainian, or a Ukrainian who does not believe he or she is Russian.

Where is Putin headed and what can be done to stop him and end the war? Putin likely has concluded that this is a fight to the finish. Ultimately, he must wear down Ukraine by force of numbers unless the West begins the equivalent of a massive "lend lease" program to keep Ukraine in the fight. And however gruesome, the metric that failed in Vietnam, the body count, must apply here. Ukraine's killing as many Russians and their generals as possible must be the strategy to force a negotiation, in essence allowing Ukraine "to win" tactically.

While some past actions by the White House may have seemed self-deterring, that must change. Ukraine must have additional capacity to threaten Russia's Black Sea Fleet and even the Kerch bridge, which links both shores of the Sea of Azov. Further, the West must have contingency plans in the event that Russians use chemical weapons. The recent episode in Mariupol might have been a test. If so, what should be the response?

About NATO, it has no army; nations have armies. Hence, despite additional deployments of troops and headquarters to Eastern Europe, in reality, this is a tripwire defense. These are insufficient to stop a major attack and are present to reinforce deterrence and Article 5 -- an attack against one is an attack against all.

Putin, of course, has a vote. Suppose Putin needs a diversion or misdirection. Moldova would seem to be a prime candidate. Russian troops have been stationed there for nearly 30 years. And threatening Moldova's neighbor Romania from both land and sea would surely divert some of NATO's attention.

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I have argued for a Porcupine Defense to deal with Russian aggression, making intensive use of drones, Stingers, Javelins, electronic and deception systems, huge improvised explosive devices, sea mines, long-range surface-to-surface and anti-ship missiles; aerostats (lighter-than-air vehicles) with long-range radars; local low-Earth orbiters to replace C4ISR space capabilities. maximum information warfare to attack the morale of Russian soldiers and a decapitation strategy to kill Russian generals and colonels. Clearly, Ukraine has proven the worth of this concept.

The Ukraine invasion may not prove to be a harbinger of 1914 or a combination of the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11 that leads to a global war on terror or world war. Understanding Putin's motivations is only part of the solution. But only a coordinated and cohesive Western strategy that enables Ukraine to prevail will succeed.

Harlan Ullman is senior adviser at Washington's Atlantic Council, the prime author of "shock and awe" and author of "The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD: How Massive Attacks of Disruption Became the Looming Existential Danger to a Divided Nation and the World at Large." Follow him @harlankullman.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.


Destroyed buildings stand in Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, on April 5, 2022. Photo by Vladyslav Musienko/UPI | License Photo

In Rio, rescue dogs watch out for their rescuers

By MARIO LOBAO

1 of 11

Police Cpl. Cristiano de Oliveira offers a hand to police dog "Corporal Oliveira," at the 17 Military Police Battalion's station, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, April 7, 2022. Oliveira is one of two rescue dogs that have turned into local mascots and budding online influencers after joining their rescuers' ranks. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)


RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In Rio de Janeiro, two rescue dogs have turned local mascots and budding online influencers after joining their rescuers’ ranks, wooing their growing audience, one bark at a time.

Corporal Oliveira, a dog with short brown hair thought to be around four years old, turned up one morning in 2019 at a police station on Rio’s Governador Island, injured and weak.

“I gave him food, water. It took a while for him to get used to me,” said Cpl. Cristiano Oliveira, the officer who took the dog under his wing and later gave him his name. But within a few days, Corporal Oliveira – the furry animal – started following his new master around the precinct. Oliveira has since joined another precinct, but the dog never left.

Corporal Oliveira has his own Instagram profile with more than 45,000 fervent followers, always hungry for more photos and videos of their mascot in his trademark police uniform, standing on top of police armoured vehicles, motorcycles or sticking his little head out of a regular patrol car’s window. He even has a miniature toy firearm attached to his uniform.

A dozen miles from there, in the leafy and leftist neighborhood of Laranjeiras, another rescue dog has turned mascot.

Caramello – a name inspired by the colour of his fur – has been residing at the fire brigade that found him injured across the iconic Sugarloaf mountain ever since he was rescued nearly a year ago. During that time, the 11-year-old dog has amassed some 27,000 followers.

Older, and slightly less adventurous then Corporal Oliveira, Caramello’s online efforts have focused on drawing attention to a wide range of good causes and campaigns.

He has used his newly found clout to promote awareness around cancer, or to encourage donations for victims of natural disasters such as the recent deadly landslides in Petropolis. He’s also helped other rescue dogs or cats find new homes.

“Caremello is a real digital influencer,” said Maj. Fabio Contreiras, from the Catete Fire Brigade, one of Rio de Janeiro’s oldest.

But with fame, comes burden. And the dogs’ fans are demanding.

“Sometimes I have too much work. I go a week without posting and people complain: ‘Where is (Corporal) Oliveira? Has he gone missing?’,” jokes Oliveira, the police officer in charge of the dog’s social media. He can get more than 200 messages in one day. Sometimes, he just has to tell them: “He’s on holiday!”

Elon Musk accused of breaking law while buying Twitter stock

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

FILE - Elon Musk founder, CEO, and chief engineer/designer of SpaceX speaks during a news conference after a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket test flight at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla, Jan. 19, 2020. Musk won't be joining Twitter's board of directors as previously announced. The tempestuous billionaire remains Twitter’s largest shareholder. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk’s huge Twitter investment took a new twist Tuesday with the filing of a lawsuit alleging that the colorful billionaire illegally delayed disclosing his stake in the social media company so he could buy more shares at lower prices.

The complaint in New York federal court accuses Musk of violating a regulatory deadline to reveal he had accumulated a stake of at least 5%. Instead, according to the complaint, Musk didn’t disclose his position in Twitter until he’d almost doubled his stake to more than 9%. That strategy, the lawsuit alleges, hurt less wealthy investors who sold shares in the San Francisco company in the nearly two weeks before Musk acknowledged holding a major stake.

Musk’s regulatory filings show that he bought a little more than 620,000 shares at $36.83 apiece on Jan. 31 and then continued to accumulate more shares on nearly every single trading day through April 1. Musk, best known as CEO of the electric car maker Tesla, held 73.1 million Twitter shares as of the most recent count Monday. That represents a 9.1% stake in Twitter.

The lawsuit alleges that by March 14, Musk’s stake in Twitter had reached a 5% threshold that required him to publicly disclose his holdings under U.S. securities law by March 24. Musk didn’t make the required disclosure until April 4.

That revelation caused Twitter’s stock to soar 27% from its April 1 close to nearly $50 by the end of April 4′s trading, depriving investors who sold shares before Musk’s improperly delayed disclosure the chance to realize significant gains, according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of an investor named Marc Bain Rasella. Musk, meanwhile, was able to continue to buy shares that traded in prices ranging from $37.69 to $40.96.

The lawsuit is seeking to be certified as a class action representing Twitter shareholders who sold shares between March 24 and April 4, a process that could take a year or more.

Musk spent about $2.6 billion on Twitter stock — a fraction of his estimated wealth of $265 billion, the largest individual fortune in the world. In a regulatory filing Monday, Musk disclosed he may increase his stake after backing out of an agreement reached last week to join Twitter’s board of directors.

Jacob Walker, one of the lawyers that filed the lawsuit against Musk, told The Associated Press that he hadn’t reached out to the Securities and Exchange Commission about Musk’s alleged violations about the disclosure of his Twitter stake. “I assume the SEC is well aware of what he did,” Walker said.

An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.

The SEC and Musk have been wrangling in court since 2018 when Musk and Tesla agreed to pay a $40 million fine t o settle allegations that he used his Twitter account to mislead investors about a potential buyout of the electric car company that never materialized. As part of that deal, Musk was supposed to obtain legal approval for his tweets about information that could affect Tesla’s stock price — a provision that regulators contend he has occasionally violated and that he now argues unfairly muzzles him.

Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment posted on Twitter, where he often shares his opinion and thoughts. Alex Spiro, a New York lawyer representing Musk in his ongoing dispute with the SEC, also didn’t immediately respond to a query from The Associated Press.