Photo: Cyril Thomas/Tribeca / EFE
For: EFE Updated 08 Feb 2022, 04: 44 pm EST
Relatives and attorneys of Melissa Lucio, the first Hispanic woman to be sentenced to death in the state of Texas, They asked the prosecutor’s office to investigate the case again and stop the execution, local media reported.
After being found guilty in July of 2008, Lucio was sentenced to death for murdering her two-year-old daughter in February 2007. The execution is scheduled for the next April.
In an effort to stop the execution , relatives and lawyers of Lucio, accompanied by activists, visited the office of Cameron County District Attorney Luis A. Sáenz on Monday to urge him to analyze a documentary about the case and reopen the investigation, KVEO television reported.
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Lucio, from 53 years old, was accused of killing her two-year-old daughter, the youngest of her 14 children.
Police found the girl unconscious, with bruises, bite marks and a broken arm when responding to an emergency call on 17 February 2008. The minor was transferred to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The Hispanic mother told police that her daughter fell down the stairs and that she caused the death, according to court documents. However, a medical examiner testified during the trial that the autopsy revealed that the girl did not die when she fell down the stairs
and that some of his injuries indicated death from blunt force trauma.
It was also revealed that the emergency room doctor who tried to revive the little girl stated that it was the worst case of child abuse he had ever seen .
Lucio declared to the authorities that she was responsible for the bite marks and the bruises on the minor’s body.
The family, supported by the organization Death Penalty Action, a group against the death penalty, warned in your request to the prosecutor that the case was riddled with inconsistencies.
The request is based on the documentary “State of Texas vs. Melissa”, from 2020, which showed a series of anomalies in the case of Lucio.
Among the long list of irregularities, the film highlights that the public defender assigned to Lucio, Peter Gilman, Not only did he not speak to any family member or acquaintance of the accused to find out about her docile character or the traumas she was carrying after a childhood of abuse, but she hid confessions that another daughter of the woman pushed the little girl down some steep stairs. deceased.
The documentary, directed by Sabrina van Tassel, It also indicates that Lucio was possibly forced to confess when interrogated for several hours.
More of 30, people have signed the petition, which is also addressed to the Governor of Texas , Greg Abbott, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, to have the case reinvestigated.
“ They are going to kill her. She is not a murderer, she is not guilty. We are only asking you to see the movie,” Sonya Valencia Álvarez, Lucio’s sister, told the television station.
However, Selina Flores, one of Lucio’s daughters, said on her TikTok account that the documentary is biased in favor of her mother and did not include contributions from many of the woman’s children about abuse.
“I am not trying to change anyone’s opinion about who they think is guilty, but the only ones who know the truth are those who were in the house when the abuse occurred,” Flores said in a message that has thousands of views.
He also expressed sadness to hear that his mother is ready to be executed and clarified that he does not want to be executed even though he believes she is guilty.
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