15 Years Ago, She Was Accused Of Taking Her Child’s Life, Yet She Says She’s Innocent: In 7 Days, She’s Going To Be Executed
In Texas, the very first Hispanic woman has been sentenced to death in the state. With an execution date set in just one week, citizens across the country are begging for her to be released.
Melissa Lucio, a 53-year-old mother of 14, was arrested on February 18, 2007, the day after her two-year-old daughter Mariah had tragically died.
That day, Lucio and her family were moving into a new home when the toddler fell down a flight of stairs. After the fall, she appeared to not have sustained any serious injuries. Yet tragically, two days later, she did not wake up from her nap. Melissa immediately called for help, but Mariah was unable to be resuscitated at the hospital.
That same night, Melissa was called in for questioning.
“In truth, Ms. Lucio’s fate began to take shape the moment emergency responders arrived at her home and made the first of a series of assumptions and misjudgments that turned the loss of her child into an even greater nightmare than anyone could have imagined,” explained the Innocence Project, an organization that works to free those wrongfully accused of crimes.
The first responders made assumptions about the manner of Mariah’s death that Melissa and many of her supporters believe are entirely untrue.
One was that when the first responders arrived, they were in the new apartment the family had just moved into and assumed Mariah had fallen there. This would be strange, considering the new apartment only had a handful of stairs.
Where Mariah had actually fallen was at their old apartment; a unit only accessible by a 14-step staircase.
Family photo; pictured above is Melissa
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An EMS worker took note of Melissa’s behavior, claiming that she did not act like he would “expect of a mother,” despite her being in deep shock.
That same evening, police kept Melissa in questioning for five hours, where they berated her, called her a bad mother, and even showed her pictures of her deceased daughter.
Melissa’s supporters claim that the police interrogated her in a way that would lead her into producing a false confession so they could hear exactly what they wanted to hear.
After doing her best to stay strong, asserting her innocence over and over again, the police had finally seemed to break her.
“I guess I did it,” an exhausted and grieving Melissa told the police, hoping that the brutal interrogation would end.
With that, police took her “confession” and ceased all investigations that looked into alternative explanations for Mariah’s death.
The medical examiner that examined Mariah after her death apparently ended up ignoring her medical history of having difficulty walking, which could have contributed to her fall. The examiner ended up releasing a statement that would support the conclusions of the officers.
Despite a number of medical experts, pediatricians, and pathologists stating that the accusations made against Melissa were incorrect, she was arrested for the murder of her daughter in July of 2008.
A few days after her arrest, she was sentenced to death.
“This injustice has not only robbed Ms. Lucio and her family of the chance to heal from Mariah’s death, but also compounded the trauma and hardship they have already experienced,” said the Innocence Project.
Melissa had been a victim of abuse since she was a child. She had been abused starting at the age of six. Ten years later, at the age of sixteen, she married a man who would also turn out to be abusive and abandon her and their five children when she was twenty-three.
Melissa eventually met Mariah’s father, who would also beat and assault her. For a period of time, some of Melissa’s children were taken away by Child Protective Services so she could get her life together.
The family also dealt with poverty, and although Melissa claimed to have been a very loving mother, she would struggle to support them.
It’s been 15 years since Melissa’s arrest, and she is set to be executed on April 27th. Her legal team and network of supporters are fighting to have her released from prison and off of death row.
Her legal team recently filed a petition to Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant Melissa clemency.
They claim that wrongful, coercive tactics were used against her and that misleading information was given during her trial. They also have statements from five jurors on her case that are concerned about withheld evidence that would’ve supported Melissa’s story.
In her documentary The State of Texas v Melissa, director Sabrina Van Tassel created an opportunity for Melissa and her family to properly give their sides of the horrific story.
In addition to her film, Sabrina has created a GoFundMe to raise money for Melissa’s media campaign and to send funds for her to use in prison.
Sabrina writes about how crucial it is that people spread the word about Melissa’s story before it is too late, saying that we must “Shed light to her egregious miscarriage of justice.”
To read more about Melissa’s story, visit the link here.
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