Justice Luz Elena Chapa of the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio. Photo: Marks Moore

Fourth Court of Appeals Justice Luz Elena Chapa has a new perspective on what wrongfully convicted people must be feeling in prison.

In an isolation room for 25 days, trying to protect her husband and three children from contracting her COVID-19 infection, she recognizes that unlike some wrongful convictions, she still has the love and support of her family and work colleagues.

Plus, she can see her children—through a window.

Her room has a sliding glass door to a patio, where her family has been eating dinner, with Chapa dining safely behind the glass.

"I get to see their faces, and see them smile and laugh and cry," the justice recalled as she choked back her own tears. "This experience obviously has changed my life already. It has changed my family's life. But there are greater lessons to be learned here."

As her voice, hoarse and raspy from the virus, began to break up, she explained that she'll kiss and hug her family every single day from now on. She yearns for the days she could tuck her kids in at night, pray together, kiss their foreheads and turn off their lights.

"Those little things that you take for granted—I just know to appreciate them, so much more," said Chapa. "If we look for the greater lessons, I think we can get past this."

Going public

Chapa contracted the virus in the middle of March after returning from a spring break vacation to Utah. With the benefit of hindsight, she said she would have canceled the trip. But back then, the official advice still centered around hand-washing, sanitizing surfaces and using protection like gloves and masks.

"We followed all the precautionary measures, and despite that fact, I still became infected," she explained.

Chapa noted that at first, she hesitated to go public with her story about battling the virus. Her whole family took a vote and decided to share their ordeal in order to stress how serious the virus can be and how staunchly the public should adhere to stay-home orders and social-distancing guidelines, she said.

Not wanting to cause alarm, Chapa did advise people to think of a room in their homes where an infected family member could stay isolated from the others. The isolation room needs its own stock of disinfectant cleaning supplies, she added.

"It's hard for me to find the words without causing alarm, but I think if we think of eliminating this illness and virus as opposed to simply containing it, the only way to eliminate it is to stay home. The only way to fully protect your family is to stay home," said Chapa. "Even if, for instance, you're having groceries delivered, even that requires a new set of protocols with wiping down handles with Clorox wipes, washing vegetables differently. I honestly feel our precautionary measures are not an overreaction."

'I'm getting stronger'

Chapa feels confident she'll fully recover at home and won't need to be hospitalized.

Starting today, she said she would work half-days to brush up on the remote technology tools that the Fourth Court is using during the pandemic. She'll start working from home on appeals next week.

"I know I'm getting stronger every day," she said. "What I am struggling with the most right now is fever, periodic tightness in the chest. As of yet, thankfully, I haven't needed to seek any type of respiratory treatments, other than the use of an inhaler, and I haven't required hospitalization."

Chapa's come-and-go fever has been demoralizing, she said. There were times during her 25-day illness that the fever stopped for two days. But then it would spike again.

"Now, it's been a steady 100," she noted. "You anticipate that day you can leave isolation and then the fever says, 'No. You have to stay put.'"

But she's keeping her struggle with the disease in perspective by thinking of others.

"I know many families are suffering right now and some are worse off, and I have been praying for those families. This is an unnerving time," Chapa said. "Yet I know that there is hope, and people can survive this illness."