A Texas woman who claims she falsely pleaded guilty to killing her two-year-old daughter in 2007 will today learn if the parole board intends to proceed with her controversial execution.
Melissa Lucio, 53, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for the death of Mariah, one of her 14 children, in Harlingen, a town of about 75,000 on the southern tip of Texas.
Her legal team allege her confession was coerced in a grueling five-hour interrogation conducted just hours after she found out her daughter had died while pregnant with twins and came after the allegations made more than 100 had denied.
Attorneys for the Innocence Project have filed a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which will consider their case until 1:30 p.m. CT today.
They will make a recommendation to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has until 6 p.m. Wednesday to intervene on the first Latina ever executed by Texas and the first woman the state has executed since 2014.
Melissa Lucio (center) bows her head in prayer during a session with State Representative Jeff Leach in prison this month
She is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday for the death of Mariah (pictured on her lap next to daughter Adriana).
If they don’t recommend a pardon, he can only delay the execution for 30 days, which will require her legal team to consider their options.
Regardless, Lucio’s legal team pursues two desperate attempts to save her life.
They filed multiple motions with the Texas Supreme Court of Appeals that could overturn the death sentence anytime before Wednesday.
Lucio, who has been in custody since 2007, claims Mariah died from injuries sustained when she fell down a flight of stairs, although she admitted to injuring Mariah at the time
The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office is also yet to rule on a motion to reverse the execution that was filed in February.
Her lawyers say new evidence shows Mariah’s injuries, including a blow to the head, were caused by a fall from a steep flight of stairs, and nearly half the jurors who convicted her have ordered her execution stayed and a retrial of the procedure required.
Lawmakers and celebrities like Kim Kardashian, an advocate for criminal justice reform, and Amanda Knox – an American found guilty of the murder of a British student in Italy and whose conviction was overturned – have lobbied for Lucio’s cause.
A bipartisan group of 100 Texas lawmakers has urged the parole board and the governor to spare their lives.
Last week some of them joined Lucio in a prayer session in prison.
However, prosecutors assume that the girl was a victim of child abuse.
In addition to the blunt injury to her head that was believed to have killed her, Mariah’s body was found to have bruises, scratches and a bite mark on her back, leading investigators to believe Mariah had been killed, and suspected Lucio of that crime.
Lucio’s lawyers say her murder conviction was based on an unreliable and coerced confession that was the result of relentless questioning and her long history of sexual, physical and emotional abuse.
Lucio, now 53, was convicted of the 2007 murder of her two-year-old daughter Mariah (pictured with son John).
Three hours after an overnight interrogation, Lucio confessed to police that she had hit and bitten her daughter – a confession that became the backbone of the case against her
“This new evidence shows Ms Lucio was convicted of a crime that never happened,” the 242-page warrant said.
‘MS. Lucio has pleaded her innocence more than 100 times, but police refused to accept any response that was not an admission of guilt – and suggested Ms Lucio the interrogation would not stop unless she told them what they wanted to hear “, says the file.
They say Lucio was not allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession.
Her attorneys also allege that unscientific and false evidence led the jury to believe that Mariah’s injuries could only have been caused by physical abuse and not the medical complications of a serious fall.
“I knew what I was accused of was not true. My children have always been my world and while my life choices were not good, I would never have hurt any of my children in this way,” Lucio wrote in a letter to Texas lawmakers.
The Innocence Project says Lucio’s lifelong history as a victim of sexual and domestic abuse has left her particularly vulnerable to confessing to things she never did
Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, whose office was prosecuting the case, said he disagreed with claims by Lucio’s attorneys that new evidence would exonerate them.
Prosecutors say Lucio has a history of drug abuse and at times lost custody of some of her 14 children.
During her interrogation, Lucio initially claimed that Mariah fell down the stairs a few days before she became unresponsive, but after about three hours she admitted to hitting and biting Mariah.
‘What do you want to tell me? I’m responsible for it,” Lucio told the Texas Rangers as they pressed her on the bite site.
The testimony became the backbone of the state trial against Mariah, with prosecutors using what they described as an admission of child abuse to directly link Lucio to their daughter’s death.
Although Lucio never admitted to actually killing or causing fatal harm to Maria, the Cameron County jury found the allegations of abuse to be sufficient to find Lucio guilty and merit the death penalty.
During her 2007 trial, the judge would not allow a psychologist to testify about why Lucio’s past could force her to make false confessions
But supporters of Lucio say the confession was clearly coerced and coerced, and that Lucio’s long history as a victim of sexual and domestic abuse has left her particularly vulnerable to confessing to things she never did — a point that bears out Lucio’s case was not brought forward because the judge would not allow a psychologist to testify on the issue.
During a sometimes controversial Texas House Committee hearing on Lucio’s case this month, Saenz initially pushed back requests to use his power to stop the execution, before later saying he would step in if the courts didn’t act.
“I disagree with all the scrutiny this case is getting. I welcome that,” said Saenz.
Armando Villalobos was district attorney when Lucio was convicted in 2008, and Lucio’s attorneys claim he pushed for a conviction to help his re-election.
In 2014, Villalobos was sentenced to 13 years in prison for a bribery scheme related to offering favorable prosecutorial decisions.
More than half of the members of the Texas House and Senate have asked for their execution to be stopped.
A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers this month traveled to Gatesville, where the state houses female death row inmates, and prayed with Lucio.
Five of the 12 jurors who convicted Lucio and one alternate juror have questioned her decision and asked that she be retried. And Lucio’s cause also has the support of faith leaders and was featured on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Lucio’s family and supporters have traveled throughout Texas, holding rallies and screenings of a 2020 documentary about her case, The State of Texas vs. Melissa.
Abbott has only granted clemency to one death row inmate since taking office in 2015.
Abbott commuted a death sentence to life without parole for Thomas “Bart” Whitaker, who was convicted of fatally shooting his mother and brother. Whitaker’s father was also shot but survived and struggled to spare his son’s life.
Lucio’s case has garnered widespread attention, and in March nearly 90 bipartisan Texas lawmakers voted to stay Lucio’s execution until the evidence can be reviewed
According to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that opposes the death penalty, it’s rare for a woman to be executed in the United States.
According to the group, women made up just 3.6 percent of the more than 16,000 confirmed executions in the United States, dating back to the 16th-century colonial era.
According to the data, 17 women have been executed nationwide since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Texas has killed more women – six – than any other state. Oklahoma is next with three and Florida has executed two.
The federal government has executed one woman since 1976. Lisa Montgomery of Kansas received a lethal injection in January 2021 after the Trump administration resumed executions in the federal system after a 17-year hiatus.
The Justice Department has again halted executions under the Biden administration.
After reading about Lucio’s case, Kardashian tweeted: “[Lucio] has been on death row for over 14 years for the tragic accidental death of her daughter.
“Their 2-year-old daughter Mariah fell down a flight of stairs and died two days later while she was napping.
“After she called for help, she was arrested by the police. [Lucio] is herself a survivor of abuse and domestic violence after being interrogated for hours and falsely pleaded guilty.
“She wanted the interrogation to end, but the police took her words as a confession.”
“She is scheduled to be executed in Texas on April 27th,” added the reality star as she urged the public to sign a petition from the Innocent Project to urge Gov. Abbott to stop Lucio’s execution.