Melissa Elizabeth Lucio is the talk of the town after being the first woman of Hispanic descent in Texas to be sentenced to death. Lucio's supporters say many of the issues in her trial trace back to the head prosecutor in the case, Armando Villalobos. False confessions are more common than you might think. Upon learning that her execution had been stayed, Melissa said in a statement: "I am grateful the Court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence. Lucio's father died when Lucio was an infant, and her family moved to the Rio Grande Valley when Lucio was almost 3 to 4 years old. Potkin said that now is a complicated time emotionally for Lucio. "The death of our sister Mariah and the prosecution of our parents tore our family apart. Many were put up for adoption while others were split up and sent to live with relatives or placed in the custody of the . Legal team for Melissa Lucio She was convicted 14 years ago of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, and a Texas jury sentenced her to death. She saw Mariah at the bottom with a bleeding lip, but she otherwise didn't appear to be seriously injured. Please give us a chance for peace. Two days later, she could not be woken from a nap and was pronounced dead at the hospital. While in interrogation, Lucio had denied murdering her child dozens of times, but her lawyers argue that her history of sexual assault and abuse often leads to false confessions, NPR reports. Her attorneys are calling for a stay of her execution so her case may be reviewed. According to the innocence project, Melissa, the mother of 14 children, was a loving and caring mother despite facing physical assault and abuse from her partner and ex-husband. According to a lawyer on Lucio's appellate defense team, Melissa is innocent. April 28, 2022 5:23 PM EDT. . But minutes before the boards decision was anticipated, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued its ruling. Legal team for Melissa Lucio In 2007, paramedics arrived at a tiny apartment that Melissa Lucio shared with her live-in . To prevent Lucio from being executed, Texas Gov. As of 2021, Melissa has been on death row for 13 years. The third claim by Lucios attorneys says that scientific evidence shows Mariah was not murdered. Upon examination, Mariah was found to be in a fetal condition, with various stages of bruising and injuries to her head and contusions to her kidneys, lungs, and spinal cord. If the execution is not postponed or stopped, she will receive a lethal injection on April 27, despite the mounting doubts over her guilt. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Melissa Lucios private life remained a mystery for many years until her daughter died and she was sentenced to prison. As a result, they argue, in part, executing her would violate constitutional guarantees of a right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment. She says she was wrongfully convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter Mariah after a tragic accident in 2007. Just two days before Melissa Lucio was scheduled to be to be put to death, a Texas court on Monday halted her execution and sent her case back for review. In 2007, Lucio's family was living in a second-floor apartment in Harlingen, in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, and the family was preparing and packing to move to a new home. Lucio and her team had raised nine claims with the appeals court, four of which were remanded to the trial court. Theyd also filed a petition with the Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing that new evidence undermined Lucios conviction. While in interrogation, Lucio had denied murdering her child dozens of times, but her lawyers argue that her history of sexual assault and abuse often leads to false confessions, NPR reports. Please enter valid email address to continue. . If the execution goes ahead, she would be the first Latina to be executed in the state of Texas. Did you encounter any technical issues? Legal team for Melissa Lucio. ", "Everything," he replied. But that's not why the American citizen of Mexican origin has made the headlines. A Warner Bros. Although the official documents say that Lucio was born in 1968, her relatives and closest members say that she was born in 1969. They wrote: "[A] history of trauma significantly reduces the resilience of the trauma victims to cope with interrogative pressure. "Ever since this accident took place, there has been a great division amongst us. But at least four of those jurors now agree Lucio should get a new trial, given the new evidence and testimony they didn't see. At the time of Mariah's death in 2007, Ms. Lucio lived with Mariah's father, Robert Alvarez, and nine children; the family had just moved into a new apartment. She was abused throughout her childhood and adolescence. "Their electric service was cut, they moved some 26 times in a five-year period. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. April 25, 2022 by John Atsu. The idea that the office mightve engaged in legal trickery to invigorate their case against Lucio is hardly surprising; then-District Attorney Armando Villalobos was trying to rehabilitate his reelection campaign amid allegations of corruption, and he was up against a challenger who had taken him to task for failing to prosecute child abuse cases. The father to Lucio's eldest children lived in Houston, Texas and did . April 11, 2022 / 11:29 AM On February 15, 2007, Mariah fell a flight of stairs while the family was busy settling things to transfer to a new house. She gave birth to the twins while in jail and was forced to give them up for adoption. The impact has been felt longest by Melissa's family. It came as it was revealed that Lucio and her children struggled through poverty. Among those calling for a stay of execution are a bipartisan group of 103 members of the Texas legislature - including 32 Republican . The execution of Melissa Lucio is off. For 14 years, Lucio had been on . AP More than a quarter of people exonerated by the Innocence Project in recent decades had confessed to the crime they allegedly committed, as Science reported. In 2020, a documentary was made regarding the case story of Melissa Lucio by Sabrina Van Tassel with the title The State of Texas vs. Melissa. The end result could be that she could obtain a new trial, Potkin said, and were confident if Melissa was retried today that she would be acquitted.. We cant say exactly how long, but we certainly dont want her to spend one day longer in prison than is absolutely necessary.. Moments later, he interrupted the interview. It came as it was revealed that Lucio and her children struggled through poverty. Babe, he said to Michelle, his voice filled with emotion. Are you serious! And that's what we're hoping for.". Lucio sobbed Monday upon hearing the news she would not be put to death Wednesday, according to an audio recording obtained by CNN. Who is Melissa Lucio? Texas woman on death row receives bipartisan support for clemency from state officials. We dont have ads, so we depend on our members 35,000 and counting to help us hold the powerful to account. Melissa Lucio is a cochina asquerosa who, over many years, created the horrifically abusive conditions and allowed her innocent baby to die. he asked. Lucio later had nine more children with her next husband, who was also found to be abusive towards her. Looking at her pictures, we can identify that she is overweight. The lawyers asked the court to block the execution and send the case back to the lower court for further scrutiny and ultimately, a new trial. She was set to be executed on April 27, 2022, but was granted a stay of execution two days prior by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Lucio was convicted in the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, and sentenced to be executed. "You start peeling back the layers and you see that it is a case about corrupt prosecutors, it's a case about unfairness," Ms Babcock said. Yes, the ruling by the appeals court does nothing to modify Lucios sentence. Photograph: The Guardian. Lucio, the only Latina on death row, was . This makes my day, he said. Lucio, 53, is a Mexican American woman who has struggled against poverty and abuse since childhood. The stairway outside the Lucios' apartment in Harlingen, Texas, where attorneys for Melissa Lucio say her daughter Mariah fell before she died. She hadnt. Specifically, the question is whether false testimony, faulty forensic practices, and hidden evidence tainted her conviction. The daughter, who was a toddler at that time, had to go through a physical disability and was unstable while walking. AMERICA continues to hold its breath over the fate of mother Melissa Lucio who was found guilty of capital murder in the 2007 death of her daughter Mariah. Later, after having lots of letters, penalties, executions, and statements of defense from the side of Lucios attorney, Lucio was still put in the questioning for the murder of her youngest child at that time out of a total of 12 children born to her due to two marriages. Around 3am, she told detectives, I guess I did it, reportedly in hopes that they would end the interrogation, according to the Innocence Project. She says that after Mariah's family discovered the child had stopped breathing, they frantically called for help and the responding police rushed to judgment in concluding that Mariah's death had been a murder, due to profound bruising on her body. FilmRise. "No, I'm not." 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. According to the reports, she has undergone a continuous and repetitive highly abnormal level of vulnerability. "That is what I cherish the most. Lucio's children previously wrote a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, pleadingGov. Lucio, a . At the time, the family lived in a small two-bedroom, second-floor flat. On April 25, 2022, the Texas court granted a stay of execution and directed the Cameron County 138th Circuit Court to review Lucios case with new evidence of her innocence regarding the death of her daughter Mariah. Two days later, Mariah went to take a nap and did not wake up. Who Are Melissa Lucio Kids? But two days before the 53-year-old mother of 14 children was due to be executed, she was given a second chance. She was convicted of capital murder following the death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, who was discovered to have scattered bruising in various stages . "If they go through with it, they'll be killing an innocent woman.". But in 2021, the full court upheld her conviction for procedural reasons a technicality. Melissa Lucio, 53, is scheduled to be executed on April 27. Melissa Lucio, 53, would be the first Latina executed by Texas and the first woman since 2014. . But many doubt Lucio's guilt and call into question the fairness of her trial. Melissa Lucio, 53, was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the 2007 death of her daughter, Mariah, which police and prosecutors attributed to a beating at the hands of her mother. "She is an innocent woman," John Lucio, Melissa's eldest son, told Latino USA at a protest outside the Cameron County Courthouse in February. In recordings of an interrogation, Lucio who was pregnant with twins at the time is heard denying guilt. Witness testimony from one of Mariah's siblings about the 2-year-old's fall down an uneven staircase two days before her death never made it before the jury, and expert witnesses were not allowed to testify on reasons why Lucio might have made a false "confession.". The trial court will also be asked to consider the claim that Lucio is innocent of murder. There were also allegations of corruption on the part of the prosecution, which did not figure into the case. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). In this undated photograph, Melissa Lucio holds one of her sons, John. How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters werent on the beat? She also has the support of an unprecedented bipartisan coalition of 87 Texas lawmakers. Separately, all eyes on Monday had been on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which had been expected to vote on a recommendation for clemency in Lucios case. Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz who was not the DA at the time of Lucio's trial told Texas lawmakers last week that he would move to delay Lucio's execution if the Board of Pardons and Paroles rejects calls for clemency and the courts don't intervene. On the other hand, Lucio said that she was pressured to have false statements regarding the allegations. The state called it an admission of guilt for Mariah's death. Police blamed Lucio for . Potkin says Lucio had inadequate defense during her trial. Texas is scheduled to execute Melissa Lucio next month. It simply has not been the same in the past 15 years," he said. An autopsy later showed that the toddler had bruising to her kidney and lungs, according to local media. It was potentially one of the last times he would see her alive. I think she should be allowed to live as long as she does not have the possibility of parole. ", Speaking to CBS Mornings he said: 'If they go through with it, they'll be killing an innocent woman.. She prodded Luna, then her roommate, to watch the movie. Her legal team, including attorneys from the federal public defender office in Austin and the Innocence Project, had filed a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking them to recommend that Gov. She is the mother of 14 children, including Mariah. According to court documents submitted by Lucio's attorneys, she was sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend starting at the age of 6 abuse that lasted for two years . The state of Texas has issued a death warrant seeking to execute Melissa Lucio (pictured), a battered woman who was sentenced to death for what may have been an accidental fall that killed her two-year-old daughter.She is scheduled to be executed April 27, 2022. At times, they were homeless and relied on food banks for meals, according to a clemency petition issued by her lawyers. Instead, police subjected Lucio to a punishing late-night interrogation lasting more than five hours. She received abuse throughout her childhood and teenage years. After her conviction for Mariah's murder, Melissa's children were taken from her care. She admitted that she had spanked Mariah on the butt, but denied abusing her. "Her so-called confession was the result of highly coercive interrogation tactics," said Potkin, "some of which are so coercive that they're no longer used today.". Greg Abbott to spare their mom's life. That is our criminal jurisprudence system and it is working., The notion that Saenz would be eager to retry Lucio rather than drop the charges offended Death Penalty Action activist Charles Keith, who spent the past several months traveling to the Cameron County courthouse in Brownsville. What's he waiting for? Greg Abbott could grant her clemency. It was sending her case back to district court to consider several pressing claims, including that Lucio was innocent in the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. The conservative Republican from North Texas became an unlikely ally of the condemned mother from the Rio Grande Valley. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. That's what Lucio told first responders and the police. I even told her myself that I consider her my best friend. She says she was coerced to confess by a Texas Ranger during her interrogation. Just two days before Melissa Lucio was scheduled to be to be put to death, a Texas court on Monday halted her execution and sent her case back for review. Please allow us to reconcile with Mariah's death and remember her without fresh pain, anguish, and grief. According to Lucio, she was once sexually abused by her mothers boyfriend. 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Since turning 18, he described meeting with his mother on death row as he backed her claims that Mariahs death was an accident. Please give us the chance for closure. The case hinges on an interrogation of Lucio conducted two hours after Mariah died, during which officers tried to get Lucio to confess to hurting her daughter. Among their arguments is that Lucio was particularly prone to providing a false confession as a lifelong survivor of sexual abuse and domestic violence. Photo: Christian K. Lee/Chronicle. The fact that Lucio was granted a stay at all is also relatively unusual; the Court of Criminal Appeals rarely sticks its neck out to pause the states machinery of death. As per the data, Melissa Lucio is only 5 feet 2 inches tall. Ultimately, the two women hooked up with Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of Death Penalty Action, who had organized a campaign around Lucios case across Texas and beyond. 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