"We ask you not to tear those wounds open again. The court has produced allegations of capital murder against her after the death of her two-year-old daughter named Mariah. 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. Many were put up for adoption while others were split up and sent to live with relatives or placed in the custody of the . She married at age 16. Attorneys for Lucio have long argued that Saenz has a conflict of interest due to the fact that Lucios defense attorney at trial, Peter Gilman, now works for him. To say Im wrestling with the very existence of the death penalty in Texas would be a dramatic understatement, Leach said. hide caption. Her attorneys are seeking either a lesser charge, to remove Lucio from death row or a . She was convicted 14 years ago of murdering her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, and a Texas jury sentenced her to death. Armando Villalobos, the district attorney who brought the charges, is now in jail for bribery unrelated to the Lucio case, but that took place when she was tried. Melissa Lucio is seen here in an undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. ", First published on April 11, 2022 / 11:29 AM. 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. Leach and a handful of colleagues traveled to visit Lucio in prison. Lucio is over 77 kgs or 170 lbs .The native of texas uses drugs very often and has been tested for cocaine earlier in her criminal offence. "Over 100 times, she asserted her innocence," said Potkin. Lawyers for Lucio have expressed optimism that a new trial would ultimately exonerate their client. In shock and grieving the loss of her baby the youngest of her 12 children at the time Ms. Lucio was taken into police custody and immediately blamed for her daughter's death. Lucio was married at the age of 16 and she produced five children with her husband, who used to abuse Lucio all the time while being in the relationship. Melissa Lucio, 53, is scheduled to be executed on April 27. Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. "Oh, it's definitely exculpatory," Schardl replied. This makes my day, he said. His younger siblings were taken in by cousins, and many did well after leaving school. In front of a large white Free Melissa Lucio banner, Van Tassel looked up toward the courthouse where she had spent so much time working on the film that would bringLucios story to the rest of the world. 2:03 PM EDT, Tue April 26, 2022, Texas court grants stay of execution for death row inmate. asked Luciano. In 2008, Melissa Lucio was sentenced to death in Texas for the murder of her 2-year old daughter Mariah, who died two days after a tragic fall down a flight of stairs. It was during one of those moves - on 15 February 2007 - that Melissa's two-year-old daughter was injured. Among the experts her attorneys sought to put on the stand was a psychologist who planned to testify that Lucio's history as a survivor of domestic and sexual abuse helped explain why she told interrogators what they wanted to hear even if it wasn't true. She gave birth to the twins while in jail and was forced to give them up for adoption. Before her execution was stayed amid the emergence of new evidence, BBC spoke to her family and supporters. We put our hands up to the glass, and we all began to cry., The press conference was still underway when Saenz, the Cameron County district attorney, released a statement responding to the stay of execution: I welcome the opportunity to prosecute this case in the courtroom, where witnesses testify under oath, where witnesses can be cross-examined, where evidence is governed by the rules of evidence and criminal procedure, and where the court rules pursuant to the rule of law, it read. But she has always maintained her innocence, saying that the toddler had died from an accidental fall, not from "beating and torturing", as prosecutors in Texas claimed. "If they go through with it, they'll be killing an innocent woman.". She was sexually abused at the age of 6 by one of her family members (her mothers boyfriend). The daughter, who was still a small child at the time, had to be examined by a doctor for a disability and was unstable when walking. Prosecutors at her . "If Melissa does not get a stay by a certain day, then I will do what I have to do and stop it," Saenz said, as the Austin American-Statesman reported. Still trying to come to terms with the reality of her child Melissa Lucio holds her daughter Mariah in this undated photograph. Toon wondered why Lucios story wasnt getting as much attention as the cases of some of the men on Texass death row. According to local media, others are still convinced she committed the crime - Melissa had a previously had a history of drug use and some of her children had been taken into care, the jurors heard at her trial - though there was no evidence of abuse. The 53-year-old was convicted in 2008 for the murder of her 2-year- old daughter, and would be the first Latina killed by the state if her execution goes as planned. He was accompanied by family members as well as Sabrina Van Tassel, the director of The State of Texas v. Melissa, who had traveled from Paris to witness Lucios execution. The fourth claim argues the state suppressed evidence favorable to her defense, violating her rights to due process. "The older ones, we were more or less of age, we were the losers," he said woefully. She was set to be executed on April 27, 2022, butwas granted a stay of execution two days priorby the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. My mom got a stay., After sobs and hugs in the lobby, the family raced to see Lucio. Since turning 18, he described meeting with his mother on death row as he backed her claims that Mariahs death was an accident. According to NPR, Lucio is an abuse survivor and was sexually assaulted multiple times starting at the age of six, and was then physically . Melissa Lucio is the first woman of an American Hispanic descent who was sentenced to death in Texas. "It looks from the outside like somebody has gotten, say, punched," said Schardl. Lucio and her attorneys have not had success in reversing the initial verdict. Prosecutors say Lucio fatally beat Mariah but Lucio has long denied that, saying her daughter died from injuries sustained during a fall down a flight of stairs. The family lived in "extreme poverty," her lawyer Sandra Babcock told BBC. Discovery Company. Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach via AP The 53-year-old is in the news because she is facing execution. "I am only here to do what can be done for my mother.". Melissa's execution date is set for April 27, 2022. In a phone call on Monday, Johnny Galvan, one of several jurors who supported Lucios clemency petition, expressed relief upon hearing that the court had stayed Lucios execution. It was 2007, and Melissa was living a difficult life with her then-husband Robert Antonio Alvarez and her 12 children, while she was pregnant with twins. "I'll make a decision once it comes to me," Abbott told KRGV, an ABC News affiliate in the Rio Grande Valley. Lucio, 52, had been set to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday for the death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah in Harlingen, a city . Oh my God. At the age of 16 she became a child bride but once again had to face an abusive marriage. Lucio, a . From the moment he walked into the interview room, Escalon testified, he knew that Lucio had done something. The notion that a person can determine anothers guilt or deception through their body language has been roundly discredited. Many were put up for adoption while others were split up and sent to live with relatives or placed in the custody of the state. Even after none of her children of Lucio accepted the physical abuse by their mother, the police and the pathologists continued to claim that Mariahs death was not because of the fall from stairs. Instead, just before 1 p.m., Bonowitzs phone rang. Melissa Lucios personal life remained in the dark for many years until the death of her daughter and she was sentenced to jail. John has organised sitdowns seeking the release of his mother and said he will continue fighting. There is significant evidence of her innocence that no court, no fact finder has ever considered. State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and other members of the Texas House Criminal Justice Reform Caucus ask state officials to halt the execution of . 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. 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story", Bipartisan Senate group unveils rail safety bill in response to Ohio derailment, What to know about Shigella bacteria as drug-resistant strain spreads, Children plead to save mother from execution, Children say toddler's death was accident, plead to save mom from execution: "She's innocent". Many were put up for adoption while others were split up and sent to live with relatives or placed in the custody of the state. Please give us a chance for peace. Photo: Christian K. Lee/Chronicle. 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. After her conviction for Mariahs murder, Melissas children were taken from her care. Lucio was kind and gentle; Toon couldnt imagine that she was capable of killing anyone, let alone her own daughter. One of her other daughters, Adriana, stands at left. He has spent his entire adult life fighting for her release. Melissa Elizabeth Lucio (born June 18, 1969) is the first woman of Hispanic descent to be sentenced to death in the U.S. state of Texas.She was convicted of capital murder after the death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, who was found to have scattered bruising in various stages of healing, as well as injuries to her head and contusions of the kidneys, lungs and spinal cord. CNN has reached out to prosecutors for comment. . State Rep. Jeff Leach said, "As a conservative Republican myself who has long been a supporter of the death penalty in the most heinous cases, I have never seen I have never seen a more troubling case than the case of Melissa Lucio.". She was sexually abused by one of her family members (her mothers boyfriend) at the age of 6. View our online Press Pack. She had fallen asleep on her parents' bed, but never woke up again. Greg Abbott to spare their mom's life. If she is killed, she would be the first Hispanic woman to be executed in Texas in the modern era of the death penalty, and the first woman executed in Texas since 2014. . Read about our approach to external linking. And they say that Lucios interrogators a phalanx of investigators that included Texas Ranger Victor Escalon engaged in their own junk science. Research says Mariah was physically abused, and people like Ms. Lucio often agree to conditions they never condemned while under tremendous pressure from the majority of people. Her lawyers said thatthestatement was wrongly interpretedby prosecutors as a murder confession, tainting the rest of the investigation into Mariahs death. She is the mother of 14 children, including Mariah. There have also been questions about the testimony provided by the medical examiner alleging that injuries on Mariah's body were clear signs of abuse. Melissa Lucio is scheduled to be executed next week for a crime she says she didn't commit one that may not have even occurred. And today shesno longer anonymous. Around 3am, she told detectives, I guess I did it, reportedly in hopes that they would end the interrogation, according to the Innocence Project. The impact has been felt longest by Melissa's family. "I hit her like this," she demonstrated by spanking a doll, sealing her fate. Melissa deserves to remain and die in prison. April 28 2022, 3:00 a.m. Melissa Lucio's loved ones react to her stay of execution during a press conference in Gatesville, Texas, on April 25, 2022. On April 27, 53-year-old Melissa Elizabeth Lucio is scheduled to be strapped to a gurney in the Texas execution chamber and given a lethal dose of drugs. Lucios other claims did not meet statutory requirements, the appeals court found, and will not be reviewed. "So first and foremost, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals could issue a stay so that the evidence of Melissa Lucio's innocence can be fully litigated in the court. Please give us the chance for closure. Selina, the fifth of Lucio's 14 children, initially came forward on TikTok back in 2021 after the release of "The State Of Texas vs. Melissa," a documentary on Hulu that covers the case and . Melissa Lucio was born on July 18, 1968 in Lubbock, Texas. It simply has not been the same in the past 15 years," he said. After the death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, the court charged her with capital murder. Published The biased investigation supported a prosecution led by a criminally corrupt prosecutor centered on an unreliable, contaminated confession and false scientific evidence that misled and inflamed the jury. Greg Abbott could grant her clemency. But the state of Texas appealed the decision, and the case then went to the 17 judges that comprise the 5th Circuit. Hawara: 'What happened was horrific and barbaric'. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. However, even if Lucio's death penalty is commuted, she still isn't going home anytime soon. To prevent Lucio from being executed, Texas Gov. In this undated photograph, Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio is holding one of her sons, John. 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. The trial court in Brownsville will hold proceedings to hear the evidence of Lucios innocence, Tivon Schardl, one of Lucios attorneys and the chief of the federal public defenders capital habeas unit in the Western District of Texas, said in a news conference Monday. On April 27, the day Lucio was set to die, they held another rally outside the Cameron Country DAs office, this time calling on Saenz to drop the charges. 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.. In fact, the court had twice ruled against Lucios appeals. DeSantis won't say he's running. 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. Later, after receiving many letters, punishments, executions and defense statements from Lucios lawyer, Lucio was still being interrogated for the murder of her then youngest child of a total of 12 children born to her due to two marriages. Melissa Lucio is an American woman who belongs to Hispanic descent and has been sentenced to death in Texas. As Lucio's scheduled execution date draws near, Bobby Alvarez is soaking up every moment he has with his mother, while holding onto that small speck of hope. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. According to prosecutors, the injuries inflicted on Mariah were the result of physical abuse, while Lucios lawyer says the daughter was injured because she fell down the stairs two days before her death. 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. It came as it was revealed that Lucio and her children struggled through poverty. Melissa Lucios loved ones react to her stay of execution during a press conference in Gatesville, Texas, on April 25, 2022. on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnt done it? But jurors didn't hear testimony from any of Lucio's kids. She was sexually abused by one of her family members (her mother's boyfriend) at the age of 6. Mariah reportedly did not have any visible injuries, but after Lucio put her down for a nap, she did not wake up and was later taken to the hospital, where she was declared dead. She refuted Gilman's claims that some of Lucio's older children were unruly and hard to handle by foster parents. Although Melissa repeatedly told the police that she did not kill her daughter, they continued to interrogate her for five hours until she . This is terrifying it should be terrifying for everybody.. They wrote: "[A] history of trauma significantly reduces the resilience of the trauma victims to cope with interrogative pressure. "No, I'm not." According to an interrogation with Lucio regarding the death of her youngest child of that time, Mariah fell down the stairs while the family was moving homes back in February 2007. "You know, it's my mom. But the attention the case has garnered helped spotlight the earlier errors in the trial and win a halt to what would be the first execution of a Hispanic woman carried out in Texas in modern times. Video, At the crash site of 'no hope' - BBC reporter in Greece, Record numbers of guide dog volunteers after BBC story. Son Bobby Alvarez, who was seven when his little sister died, described how he cried every night wanting my momma back after she was taken away. In an undated photo, Melissa Lucio is pictured with one of her young children. Who is Melissa Lucio? "There is significant evidence of her innocence that no court, no fact finder has ever considered," Potkin says. Before all this, "we were a large family and we were very united", her eldest son, John, told BBC. 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. "While there is great optimism in some regards because of the support and because it seems to be resonating with so many people, that she has a compelling claim of innocence and just the injustice that would happen if this execution goes forward," Potkin said on Wednesday. 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. Prosecutors said she confessed after this police interrogation, and on the testimony of one of the agents who said he was "convinced" she was guilty, and on the injuries that Mariah's body had shown at the time of her death. Ms Lucio was taken in for questioning and was interrogated for almost five hours while she was pregnant and going through the shock of losing her young child, Mariah. Simply has not been the same in the dark for many years until the death of her two-year-old daughter Mariah... 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