Mariah, two years old, was playing on the stairs of her house while her parents and eleven siblings were organizing one of her many moves. Suddenly, the girl abruptly fell down the stairs. Her mother, Mexican-American Melissa Lucio, found her crying with some blood on her teeth. But, seeing that her daughter had no other injuries, Lucio was not alarmed. Two days later, Mariah was found dead by her father while she slept.
The incident occurred on 14 February 2007 in Cameron County , state of Texas, in the United States. A year later, the judges determined that the Hispanic woman had “beaten and tortured” her daughter and sentenced her to death. The court relied on a confession that Lucio gave during a five-hour police interrogation, in which, exhausted and affected by it, she ended by saying: “I don’t know what they want me to say. I guess I’m responsible.”
The family and advocates for the only Hispanic woman on Texas death row, Melissa Lucio, are fighting to stop her impending execution. This is her story. https://t.co/Ez100lWABSs
— CNN en Español (@CNNEE) April 20, 2022
The execution of Lucio, by 53 years, is scheduled for this 27 April 2022 by lethal injection and has caused a stir international. Dozens of organizations, experts and human rights activists insist that her execution be stopped. According to them, the process was riddled with misunderstandings that were not investigated at the time by his defense and, as a consequence, Lucio was left on “death row”.
After the woman passed by 14 years in prison, her lawyers assure that a new review of the evidentiary material of the case shows that she is innocent and that she was induced to give a confession under pressure.
Alleged errors in the trial
To obtain a stay of execution or a postponement of 120 more days, Melissa Lucio’s lawyers have filed a request for clemency with the Board of Pardons of the state of Texas , and before its spokespersons. The document, which has the support of more than 80 legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, and four jurors who convicted the woman in 2008, must be approved by the Board of Pardons and by the Governor of the State of Texas, Greg Abbott.
“Mariah’s death was a tragedy, not a murder. Lucio affirmed his innocence more than 100 times during the police interrogation”, he declared to the media Newsweek her attorney Vanessa Potkin, from the Innocence Project organization, which fights for wrongfully convicted prisoners. “The police coerced her and manipulated her until she was exhausted, and finally she told them what they wanted to hear,” she added.
The lawyers have delivered more evidence this week, expert testimony and forensic analysis that would prove Melissa’s innocence. “We have submitted some 550 pages of new evidence that proves his innocence, and now we need a suspension of the date so that the court has adequate time, “said another of Lucio’s lawyers, Sandra Babcock, to Telemundo television.
While Lucio was sentenced to death, his then-partner, Robert Álvarez, received four years in prison, despite apparently having the same responsibility for Mariah’s death. That fact would represent a case of discrimination: “All this has to do with gender. Therefore, Melissa has been a victim of discrimination,” said Babcock, who also described the family’s situation as “extremely poor,” for which they had to move some 20 times in just five years.
“Irreversible error”
The irregularities in Lucio’s trial gained strength as a result of the documentary “The State of Texas vs. Melissa”, by Sabrina Van Gassel, released in 2020, in which it is shown that the death of the girl could to have been the product of an accident, and not a homicide.
“We were a great family and we were very close. We just have to have faith and keep praying,” John Lucio, one of Melissa’s children, told the US media. He and his wife, as well as the author of the documentary, are just some of those who may be present during Melissa Lucio’s execution.
“ If Melissa is executed, it would be an irreversible error. If this execution is carried out, it will be a totally devastating message. It would send the message that innocence does not matter”, said Sandra Babcock.
Anything can happen this week. The court still hasn’t asked for more time, the prosecutor hasn’t stopped the execution, and the Texas governor hasn’t granted clemency, so lethal injection is still up for Wednesday 27 April, at six in the afternoon.
Read more:
Melissa Lucio: Texas prosecutor raises doubts about the execution of the Latina sentenced to death
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2022