And experts who have reviewed Ms. Lucios case, including her interrogation records, have concluded that Ms. Lucio was relentlessly pressured and extensively manipulated during the interrogation. [1] Lucio's execution was set for April 27, 2022, but an appeals court granted her a stay on April 25, 2022. Selina, the fifth of Lucios 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 Lucios fight to have her conviction overturned. American woman controversially sentenced to death, Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, List of death row inmates in the United States, List of people scheduled to be executed in the United States, List of women on death row in the United States, "Woman with Lubbock ties to be executed, many take up the cause to stop it", "Melissa Lucio is scheduled to be executed for a crime that may not have occurred", "Is Texas Sending Melissa Lucio to Die for a Crime That Never Happened? In this undated photograph, Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio is holding one of her sons, John. The parole board was scheduled to vote on Lucio's clemency petition two days before the execution. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Lucio's conviction, ruling she was deprived of "her constitutional right to present a meaningful defense." Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a134b9f398d2f98 Ms. Lucios execution for April 27, for a crime that never occurred. Her husband later abandoned her and their five children. Lucio regained custody of the other kids in late 2006 after three older kids moved in with their father in Houston. 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. Was her child's death really a murder? Lucio is set to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. isYTTikTok = 0; Did OJ Simpson's Son Jason Kill Nicole Brown & Ron Goldman? According to court documents, Melissa Lucio was born on June 18, 1969, in Lubbock, Texas. I am now convinced that the jury got it wrong and I know that there is too much doubt to execute Lucio. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Studies have shown that even trained forensic dentists cant agree whether or not an injury is a bite mark. Shortly after Mariah was born, Lucio tested positive for cocaine use; as a result, authorities decided to place her children in foster care. The Cameron Countys new district attorney, the courts, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and Gov. [4] As of 2022, Lucio is being held on death row[14] at the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas. Lucio says she regrets the confession and her advocates suggest that. "When you get to this point, you find there's so many layers that most people aren't aware of and don't care about, frankly. We're asking the governor and Board of Pardons and Paroles and the district attorney, which are the three [political] entities that can do something about this, to watch the filmbecause we believe anybody that watches this film will come away at least with doubt if not being convinced of Melissa's innocence," Bonowitz said. [8] She admitted to having spanked Mariah, but denied ever having abused her, which she repeated more than 100 times. Death Row Stories, a Netflix documentary set to premiere this Friday (May 25), has revealed Lucio’s twisted thoughts and the heinous crime she committed. But Ms. Lucios life is still in jeopardy. . "https:" : "http:") + '//www.tiktok.com/embed.js'; Lucio, born in Lubbock, Texas, endured years of abuse and violence, according to her attorneys. In particular, the jury never learned about the extent of Ms. Lucios history of child sexual abuse and domestic violence and how it shaped her reactions immediately following her daughters death. Lucio is now fighting to stop her April 27 execution date. Ms. Lucio got the death penalty but shes asking for a chance to appeal. You know? Nearly all proven false confession cases have the following three things in common: As soon as police officers encountered Ms. Lucio, they misclassified her response to the grief and shock of her daughters death as indicative of guilt. In a video, a female officer asks the boy: "Did you see your sister fall down the stairs or did somebody tell you that she fell?" The Office of Justice Programs, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice that focuses on crime prevention through research and development, said in a published report on interviewing domestic violence victims that detectives should "give credibility to the victim without expecting a high level of cooperation.". She was scheduled for execution on April 27, 2022. "If those threats in the interrogation are a trigger and she checks out, it can again be easy for her to just say whatever because she's trying to cope with what feels like a present threat.". And experts who have reviewed Ms. Lucios case, including her interrogation records, have concluded that Ms. Lucio was relentlessly pressured and extensively manipulated during the interrogation. Lucio has 14 children and was pregnant with the youngest two when Mariah died. The autopsy also revealed that Mariah had suffered a head injury and bruises on her kidneys, lungs, and spinal cord. The woman, Melissa Lucio, a mother of 14, was found guilty back in 2008 in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. "I guess I did it," police say Lucio told them. Read and share these key facts before Texas makes the irreversible mistake of killing an innocent woman. "My mother is an innocent woman. [14], Forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Young, the former chief medical examiner in Kansas City, Missouri, reviewed the case at the request of Lucio's post-conviction attorney. They implied that if she did not confess, she wouldn't be allowed to attend Mariahs funeral. Melissa Lucio was born in Lubbock Texas on June 18 1969 as stated in court documents. The Texas Attorney General's Office maintains evidence shows Mariah suffered the "absolute worst" case of child abuse her emergency room doctor had seen in 30 years. Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP. So you respond to threats, you respond to violence, you respond to demands, you respond to the escalating voice by saying, 'Yes, yes, I'll do it,'" said Mindy Mechanic, a forensic psychologist and professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton. [1][19], In August 2021, an amicus brief was filed on Lucio's behalf by a group consisting of legal scholars, experts on violence against women, and representatives from sixteen organizations that combat violence against women. All Rights Reserved. Web: www.ghgossip.com, About Us Contact Advertise Privacy Policy, Get To Know Neil Wagner: Biography, Age, Career, Net Worth, Height, Relationship & More. Make sure everyone on Twitter knows her name: Tweet now, 10 datos que debes saber sobre esta mujer inocente que enfrenta su ejecucin. Her lawyers say this lifelong trauma made her susceptible to giving a false confession. On Wednesday, they visited Lucio at Mountain View Unit in Gatesville. "We promised #MelissaLucio and her family we'd do everything we can do to prevent this irreversible injustice from taking place later this month,"Leach wrote Thursday on Twitter. [26], On March 6, 2022, in the main segment of an episode of the HBO show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver called "Wrongful Convictions", her case was the main one to be mentioned as a reason for the reform of the American justice system and specifically, the abolition of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). It would be an absolutely devastating message for this execution to go forward. They used coercive methods known to produce false confessions. Mariah was the twelfth child of Lucio. Ms. Lucio is a survivor of life-long, repeated sexual assault and domestic violence. The little girl's mother, Melissa Lucio, claimed her daughter, Mariah Alvarez, had abrasions on her back and was covered in bruises because of a fall down a steep set of 14 steps two days earlier outside the family's new apartment. On the other hand, her lawyers have been claiming that she was wrongfully convicted of beating her own child. Prosecutors said that Mariah's injuries were the result of physical abuse, while Lucio's attorneys say that her death was caused by a fall down the stairs two days prior. Lucy Guarnera, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia who studies false confessions, said law enforcement often uses "behavioral lie detection" techniques that look at a person's actions to predetermine innocence or guilt. The Cameron County District Attorneys Office said Mariah was found at home with signs of abuse. Calls are growing for Texas to stop the approaching execution of Melissa Lucio, who says she was wrongfully convicted of killing her toddler Mariah in 2007. Melissa Lucio holds her daughter Mariah. Keep up with her Twitter for more. She had numerous bruises, bite marks on her back, pulled-out hair patches, and a broken arm. During her trial, those statements were presented to the jury as her confession. It was later determined that Mariah's arm had been broken two to seven weeks before her death, and an autopsy also showed a head injury and bruising of the kidneys, lungs and spinal cord. Research has shown that survivors of sexual abuse and violence, like Ms. Lucio, are even more vulnerable to falsely confessing under such coercive conditions. The omission of this crucial evidence was particularly damaging because the prosecution had a weak case for capital murder, and an even weaker case for a death sentence. The project's petition, asking Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz to rescind the execution, has received over 44,000 signatures. Lucio is set to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. During the interrogation, officers berated and intimidated Ms. Lucio, who was pregnant and in shock from the loss of her child, for five hours. A spokeswoman for Abbott's office did not return an email seeking comment. Melissa Lucio and Robert Alvarez welcomed Mariah into the world in September 2004. [6][failed verification] According to Lucio, Mariah had sustained the injuries when she fell down a flight of stairs two days earlier. However, the full court in 2021 said the conviction had to be upheld for procedural reasons, "despite the difficult issue of the exclusion of testimony that might have cast doubt on the credibility of Lucio's confession.". A woman facing execution in Texas for killing her daughter is seeking clemency, claiming she was coerced into confessing to the crime. In the 2020 documentary "The State of Texas vs. Melissa," Lucio said investigators kept pushing her to say she had hurt Mariah. Following Mariah's death, Lucio was arrested and questioned for seven hours by Texas Ranger Victor Escalon without a lawyer present, and without receiving food or water. Lucio's lawyers say jurors never heard forensic evidence that would have explained that Mariah's various injuries were actually caused by a fall days earlier. In the documentary, Alexandra does not recall these alleged confessions. "I don't want to be in that room on April 27 to see her get executed," Michelle Lucio said. [17] This decision was subsequently overturned in an en banc hearing of the same court[18] and Lucio remained on death row. The local hospital said the child had passed away. Melissa Lucio Mariahs mother was found guilty of capital murder. "There are already police departments around the world who have this more investigatory, fact-finding model," Guarnera said. In 2008, She was convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. She is . He says he didnt know about Mariah Alvarezs serious injuries before she passed away. The Rangers believed Lucio had killed Mariah on Feb. 17, 2007, saying that her unwillingness to make eye contact and her slumped shoulders were signs of guilt, according to a clemency petition filed on March 22. Lucio was convicted of killing her daughter, Mariah Alvarez, 15 years ago in . var tiktokscr = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; BROWNSVILLE - Melissa Elizabeth Lucio was formally sentenced to death by lethal injection in the 13th Judicial District Court, according to a Cameron county District Attorney's Office release. 2023 Innocence Project. Melissa Lucio was found guilty of a very serious crime called "capital murder". The Innocence Project is affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. To date, over 100 bipartisan Texas lawmakers signed letters urging the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency for Melissa. She claimed that he was frequently physically abusive and drug and alcohol-dependent. But this can be detrimental because "a lot of trauma symptoms look like these behavioral cues of lying," Guarnera said. AP The State of Texas has scheduled Ms. Lucios execution for April 27, for a crime that never occurred. Her dad passed away when she was a baby so her family moved to the Rio Grande Valley where her mother grew up when she was still a little kid. So right there and then, I knew she did something," he said. Melissa Lucio, only Latina on Texas death row, seeks clemency as execution looms. FilmRise By Maurice Chammah The detective handed Melissa Lucio a plastic doll and asked her to spank it. The jury was deprived of key evidence to weigh: that is the point.. window.addEventListener('scroll', function() { While she was incarcerated, she gave birth to twins, making four total. Texas Innocent Project. On Feb. 8, attorneys for Ms. Lucio, to withdraw or modify her looming execution date, and on March 22, her legal team, to the governor and Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Mariah fell down a flight of stairs while the family was moving homes on Feb. 15, 2007. Guarnera said these are excellent tips to follow, but pointed out that detectives often do the opposite when they believe someone is a suspect and not a victim. On April 15, Ms. Lucios. He continued by telling her, "We already know what happened". The Texas Rangers did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails for comment about the case. But Ms. Lucios life is still in jeopardy. Child Protective Services was present in the family's life, but there was never an accusation of abuse by any of her children, Potkin said. Isla Bryson Children: Does Isla Bryson Have Children. The Cameron County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted Lucio, declined to comment. Ms. Lucio struggled at times to provide for her family, but was a caring mother, who did her best given her incredibly difficult circumstances. It was later discovered that Mariahs arm had been broken two to seven weeks prior to her passing away. were wrongly convicted of harming children or other loved ones in their care and over 70% were wrongly convicted of crimes that never took place at all events that were accidents, deaths by suicide, or fabricated according to data from the, Detectives rushed to judgment and, just two hours after Mariah died, took Ms. Lucio in for questioning. Child Protective Services had previously investigated Lucio for allegations of child neglect, and they reported that Lucio's youngest children were often left in the care of their teenaged siblings. In a now-deleted tweet, Kardashian described the crime as a tragic accident. However, some of Lucios children have spoken out, insisting that their mother is guilty. Still a minor and unable to leave the abusive marriage, Ms. Lucio was trapped and developed a substance use problem. The medical examiner also testified at trial that a mark on Mariahs body were bite marks. In a previous investigation into Lucio for alleged child neglect, Child Protective Services found that his youngest kids were frequently left in the care of their older, teenage siblings. if(isYTTikTok == 1){ Her lawyers say that statement was wrongly interpreted by prosecutors as a murder confession tainting the rest of the investigation into Mariah's 2007 death, with evidence gathered only to prove that conclusion, and helping lead to her capital murder conviction. He also stated that Lucio's execution would be a terrible tragedy. Child Protective Services had previously investigated Lucio for allegations of child neglect, and they reported that Lucio's youngest children were often left in the care of their teenaged siblings. But worn down from a lifetime of abuse and the grief of losing her daughter Mariah, her lawyers say, the Texas woman finally acquiesced to investigators. Melissa Lucio was sentenced to death, July 10, 2008, in Brownsville, Texas. Neave Criado who visited Melissa Lucio on death row earlier this week spoke at the conference about the bipartisan support her case has received. Lucio received the death penalty for the death of Mariah. Some of the children living with Lucio were previously taken from the home by Child Protective Services and placed into foster care when Mariah was three weeks old, in 2004. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. However, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who reviewed the evidence concluded that the medical examiners testimony was misleading and there is nothing about Mariahs fracture that indicates that, was the result of an intentional act or abuse. Three older children went to live in Houston with their father, and Lucio regained custody of the others in late 2006.[5]. In this undated photograph, Melissa Lucio holds one of her sons, John. Officers contaminated the confession by repeatedly showing Ms. Lucio photographs of relevant evidence and suggesting certain words and facts, which she ultimately parroted back to the officers. Unfortunately for her, this is also around the time that she claims to have been sexually abused by her mothers boyfriend for two years starting at age seven. According to Dr. Young, Melissa Lucio should not be executed because he believes she is innocent. Mariah was crying but did not appear to have any serious injuries, Lucio said. Trauma victims who dissociate may not fully grasp the severity of the situation they are in so "they're not going to be able to track and pay attention as carefully and this can make you potentially prone to accepting suggestions from officers," Guarnera said. Lucio has said that her daughter who had a condition that caused her foot to be turned in fell down a flight of outdoor stairs as the family was preparing to move to a new apartment. In 2008 a Cameron County jury found Lucio guilty on one count of capital murder for causing the death of her daughter, Mariah Alvarez.
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