In 2008 a Cameron County jury found Lucio guilty on one count of capital murder for causing the death of her daughter, Mariah Alvarez. The trial court prohibited this testimony but allowed the Texas Ranger who coerced Ms. Lucios incriminating statement to testify, falsely, for the prosecution that Ms. Lucios slumped posture, passivity, and failure to make eye contact told him that she was guilty. The toddler had a mild physical disability that made her unstable while walking and prone to tripping. Court documents show that prosecutors argued at Lucio's trial that she had repeatedly abused Mariah and killed her by hitting her in the head. According to court documents, Melissa Lucio was born on June 18, 1969, in Lubbock, Texas. Advertisement : [emailprotected] "Our campaign is called Free Melissa Lucio because we don't want to just save her, we want her out," Bonowitz said. Read and share these key facts before Texas makes the irreversible mistake of killing an innocent woman. She is now fighting to stop her April 27 execution. A spokeswoman for Abbott's office did not return an email seeking comment. Two of the officers who interrogated Ms. Lucio were present at Mariahs autopsy, leading to a biased autopsy process, and an incomplete investigation into Mariahs health history and causes of her injuries and death. 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? "The ask is very specific. And that's as much as people want to know," he said. At times, they were homeless and relied on food banks for meals, according to the petition. 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. 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. 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. "https:" : "http:") + '//www.tiktok.com/embed.js'; Courtesy of the family of Melissa Lucio via AP, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Our website services, content and products are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. In 2008, She was convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. Mariah was crying but did not appear to have any serious injuries, Lucio said. These conditions led her to be manipulated into admitting she caused her daughter's death despite Lucio asserting her innocence over 100 times throughout the interrogation, according to her lawyers. "Interrogation is also a very cognitively demanding task so you need to be listening, you need to be parsing the truth and falsity of the information, you need to be thinking about your future options and consequences.". Lucio was convicted for the death of her daughter Mariah Alvarez. A psychologist who reviewed recent testing of Melissa said that Melissa has highly abnormal levels of vulnerability to police coercion because of her background. Her husband later abandoned her and their five children. The detectives shouted at her, berated her for being a neglectful mother, and implied that if Mariah's death was not her fault then it had to have been one of her children, according to the petition. The detectives also handed Lucio a doll and asked her to demonstrate what happened, according to the petition. Nearly 1 in 3 exonerated women 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 National Registry of Exonerations. Selinas claims contradict the evidence presented in the case. However, pathologists who have reviewed the evidence have concluded that this testimony was false. Guarnera said she believes a practice used by police in Europe, called the Peace model, would help people in situations similar to Lucio's. The Cameron County District Attorneys Office reports that Mariah was discovered at the residence with physical evidence of abuse. Lucio had been sexually assaulted multiple times, starting at age 6, and had been physically and emotionally abused by two husbands. They found out that Mariahs arm had been broken two to seven weeks before she died. 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. Mariahs autopsy showed signs of a blood coagulation disorder, which causes profuse bruising throughout the body. Lucio is set to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. The jury was deprived of key evidence to weigh: that is the point.. Prosecutors say the now-53-year-old abused her daughter, Mariah, while Lucio maintains that her death was a result of injuries sustained from falling down a flight of stairs outside their Texas home. "The Innocence Project recognized the urgency that an innocent woman was headed for execution," Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation for the organization, told ABC News. Because of this, they decided to take her children and put them in foster care. 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. I have never seen a more troubling case than the case of Melissa Lucio," said state Rep. Jeff Leach, who signed the letter. Abbott can grant a one-time, 30-day reprieve. Mariah was the twelfth child of Lucio. Lucio's supporters have said her clemency request is similar in that her family would be retraumatized if she's executed. "There's so much more to it that happens way before the crime.". Instead of taking the steps to learn about Mariahs health history and investigating the causes of her injuries, authorities immediately jumped to the conclusion that she had been murdered and, through a coercive interrogation, pressured Ms. Lucio to make a false statement. Melissa Lucio holds her daughter Mariah. Family photo via AP As a result, she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociation, according to her legal team. 2023 Innocence Project. She says in another video that she never witnessed physical abuse, only her mother pinching Mariah or excluding her but says she later became aware that other physical abuse was happening. Though Selina believes her mother is guilty, she does not want her to be killed and says she signed the petition to request clemency for Lucio. The officers relied on their presumptions about how a mother should act in this tragic scenario and their gut-feeling, without a thorough forensic examination of the evidence to draw an unscientific presumption of guilt, which then created tunnel vision of investigators and the interrogating officers. In the similar case of Manuel Velez, a man who was initially convicted for murdering a one-year-old baby and whose death sentence was overturned after further investigation, Farley's conclusions had also been contradicted by other medical experts. Here are 5 things to . "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. A mitigation specialist at trial named Norma Villanueva claims that Alexandra admitted during a family meeting in June 2008 that she was the reason Mariah fell down the stairs.. [1] Lucio's execution was set for April 27, 2022, but an appeals court granted her a stay on April 25, 2022. Lucio is now fighting to stop her April 27 execution date. Alexander Molony Parents: Who Are Alexander Molony Parents? Alexander Molony Children: Does Alexander Molony Have A Child? Melissa Lucio holds her daughter Mariah. Lucio also has a lower-than-average IQ. As her April 27 execution date nears, Lucio's lawyers are hopeful that new evidence, along with growing public support including from jurors who now doubt the conviction and from more than half the Texas House of Representatives will persuade the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. On April 15, Ms. Lucios attorneys filed a habeas petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeking a stay of her execution and arguing that she deserves a new trial because she is innocent and the State relied on false evidence,and hid favorable evidence, to convict her. The International Association of Chiefs of Police, a Virginia-based association for police leaders, has a guide on the best practices law enforcement should follow for successful trauma-informed interviewing. She had her head down. Lucio that her teenage daughter, Alexandra, may have been responsible for the bruises found on Mariahs body after her death. said, adding that an emergency room doctor said it was the "absolute worst" case of child abuse. } MELISSA ELIZABETH LUCIO, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS ON DIRECT APPEAL CAUSE NUMBER 07-CR-885-B IN THE 138TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT CAMERON COUNTY Hervey, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which Meyers, Johnson, Keasler, Cochran, and alcala, JJ., joined. April 17 2022, 4:00 a.m. "Free Melissa . At Ms. Lucios trial, the medical examiner testified that the bruises and injuries on Mariahs body could only have been caused by abuse. the youngest of her 12 children at the time Ms. Lucio was taken into police custody and immediately blamed for her daughters death. "I don't want to be in that room on April 27 to see her get executed," Michelle Lucio said. Melissa Lucio was born in Lubbock, Texas,[2] on June 18, 1969, according to court records. "If you think about what's happening in an interrogation, that's a very parallel process.". Lucios defense team has pointed out many issues in the case that suggest Lucio never got a fair trial. The medical examiner also testified at trial that a mark on Mariahs body were bite marks. The board plans to vote on Lucio's clemency petition two days before the scheduled execution, Rachel Alderete, the board's director of support operations, said in an email. [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. RELATED: 5 Death Penalty Facts That Will Make You Want To Abolish It Now. This was an extremely common type of injury among toddlers that can result from a fall from standing height. 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. He spoke in emotional support of his mother at a press conference on Friday held by civic engagement nonprofit Somos Tejas, Texas state Rep. Victoria Neave Criado and other Texas state legislators saying that his family "hasn't been the same" since her incarceration. There is now evidence that all three of these things happened in Ms. Lucios case. It would send a message that innocence doesn't matter," said Vanessa Potkin, one of Lucio's attorneys who is with the Innocence Project. Paramedics were called to Melissa Lucio's home in Harlingen, Texas, on Feb. 17, 2007, after her 2-year-old daughter Mariah Alvarez was found unresponsive and not breathing. I am now convinced that the jury got it wrong and I know that there is too much doubt to execute Lucio. Mariah fell down a flight of stairs while the family was moving homes on Feb. 15, 2007. Lucio received the death penalty for the death of Mariah. Updated on March 25, 2022, 2:30 p.m. 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. Lucio says she regrets the confession and her advocates suggest that police and prosecutors were wrong to assume that she was the only one in the home capable of abusing Mariah. Help us advocate for the innocent by sharing the latest news from the Innocence Project. According to Selina, the documentary mischaracterizes the accusations against Lucio and adds to the belief that Lucio is innocent. [13], Lucio was pregnant with twins at the time of Mariah's death, and authorities compelled her to place them for adoption after delivering them while in jail. The brief states that Lucio's subdued behavior and acquiescence during interrogation were the result of prior trauma as a survivor of abuse. At the time, Mr. Villalobos was seeking re-election, and came under fire for failing to thoroughly investigate or prosecute more than 100 previous allegations of child abuse. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. As two experts on false confessions have determined, due to the officers tactics and Ms. Lucios vulnerability, her incriminating statements are not a reliable confession of her guilt, but rather are a regurgitation of information relayed to her from investigators throughout the interrogation.Lucio Successor Writ Application, at 136 (quoting David Thompsons Expert Report). Experts who have studied false confessions and trauma response said Lucio's behavior is common in abuse victims and criticized the Rangers' interrogation tactics. Melissa Lucio and Robert Alvarez became parents to Mariah in September 2004. since Ms. Lucios trial because it has no scientific basis. If a majority of the Board of Pardons and Paroles were to recommend it, Governor Greg Abbott could grant clemency. Mariah was the twelfth child of Lucio. 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?" window.addEventListener('scroll', function() { "My mother is an innocent woman. Death Penalty Action started the Free Melissa Lucio project shortly after Lucio was notified of her execution date. I dont want her to be executed, she says. Attempts to reach Crain were unsuccessful. 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. States that Lucio 's subdued behavior and acquiescence during interrogation were the result of prior as! 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