lawyers Lonely Latina on death row in Texas She filed a pardon petition on Tuesday ahead of her planned execution next month, presenting evidence they say indicates she was wrongly convicted and that four jurors at her trial are now questioning the outcome of their convictions.
Latest attempt to spare Melissa Lucio Life comes 14 years after she was sentenced to death in a capital murder case involving the youngest of her twelve children at the time. Prosecutors at her trial said Lucio was physically abused toward her daughter Maria, that the two-year-old had bruises all over her body, signs of a head injury and an untreated broken arm when she was taken to hospital in 2007 and died.
But Lucio’s supporters, who maintain her innocence, believe that she was convicted based on false medical evidence and that the police extracted a confession from her that became the mainstay of the trial.
Lucio, 53, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on April 27. The request for clemency is not asking for a full pardon, but rather a commutation of her death sentence to a lesser sentence, or at least a 120-day reprieve as she seeks a new trial.
“Maria’s death was a tragedy, not a murder,” Lucio’s attorney, Vanessa Botkin of the Innocence Project, said during a news conference on Tuesday.
“It would be a very devastating message if this execution was carried out,” she added. “It will send the message that innocence does not matter.”
Governor Greg Abbott and the Cameron County District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they could intervene. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to comment on Tuesday.
Lucio’s legal team acknowledged that she is facing a difficult road because it is Rarely applies to the Pardon and Parole Board To hold a new hearing and recommend clemency in a major case. Tyvonne Shardell, Lucio’s federal attorney general, said the board will make its recommendation on a request for clemency within days of the implementation date.
Lucio, who had no previous prison record, is one of six women On death row in Texas. last time the state A woman was executed in 2014there are about 50 women They are on death row across the United States, according to the nonpartisan Death Penalty Information Center.
Lucio’s lawyers also filed a request in February to withdraw the date of her execution.
On February 17, 2007, Lucio and her husband, Robert Antonio Alvarez, were in the process of moving their home in South Texas when Maria fell down a flight of stairs, according to court files.
According to Lucio’s legal team, the girl had a mild disability in which her feet were turned to the side, and therefore was prone to tripping and had a history of falls. While her parents did not believe she was seriously injured in the fall, two days later, Maria did not respond and paramedics took her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. Lucio was questioned that same night for more than five hours by investigators with the Texas Rangers.
In the request for clemency, Lucio’s attorneys included what they said was new criminal evidence that the jury had not heard. It also described in detail how seven nationally recognized experts, including scientists and forensic professionals, who reviewed the case, concluded that she was convicted based on “unscientific” and “false” evidence, and an unreliable confession that was “essentially mere”. A return to “the facts and the words of the officers, feed her.”
Lucio’s lawyers also said that Lucio was sleep-deprived and was pregnant with twins at the time of her interrogation, and given how long investigators had questioned her, “the nightly interrogation increased her risk of falsely incriminating herself,” according to the pardon request. .
Her lawyers said Lucio had been a victim of sexual assault since the age of six and of domestic violence by two partners, which left her “extremely vulnerable and vulnerable” to questioning by male police officers.
“Melissa was a victim long before she was a defendant. We have no doubt that Melissa’s case will be handled differently today,” said Daisy Lopez, COO of Friendship of Women, a social services organization in Brownsville, Texas.
“Based on current research and literature showing how trauma survivors deal with violence, Melissa was not given the opportunity to access community resources and specialized victim services that would have changed the outcome for Melissa and her children,” Lopez said, adding, “This is not how we support survivors.” of violence today.
Armando Villalobos, the Cameron County District Attorney at the Great Lucio murder trial, was Sentenced in 2014 to 13 years in federal prison For his part in the scheme of bribery and extortion.
One of Lucio’s sons, Bobby Alvarez, said her execution would be a shock he could not overcome.
“If she is executed… I will not be able to work anymore,” he said in a statement received in the request for clemency.
Alvarez was eight years old when he sentenced Lucio. He added, “It’s my mother…I beg you not to execute her.”
Texas, which has the most active death chambers in the country, currently has three more executions planned in 2022 besides Lucio. One was due in March was The state criminal appeals court suspended himWhile a number of cases filed by those sentenced to death are reviewed.
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