Lucio was married at the age of 16 and had her first five children with Guadalupe Lucio. Three older children went to live in Houston with their father, and Lucio regained custody of the others in late 2006.[5]. All Rights Reserved. Attempts to reach Crain were unsuccessful. [11][12] A pathologist, Dr. Norma J. Farley, testified that the childs autopsy indicated that she did not die from falling down stairs, and instead her injuries were consistent with a death from blunt force trauma. What we know today which we didnt know 15 years ago is that survivors of significant trauma and domestic abuse, like Ms. Lucio, are particularly vulnerable to the coercive police interrogation that Ms. Lucio endured for over five hours. Two more children (twins) were born while she was imprisoned. 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? Mariah fell down a flight of stairs while the family was moving homes on Feb. 15, 2007. [13], Lucios defense argued that Mariah's injuries were from falling down the stairs, and that Lucio's psychological functioning contributed to her conflicting reports given to authorities. 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. She said she believes she falsely confessed in part because of a learned fear of violence. The application also states that the state medical examiner who performed Mariah's autopsy was told that Lucio admitted to abusing the girl and was accompanied by two of the interrogating officers during the autopsy. I believe that she should be in prison. Her next partner, who was also abusive, repeatedly raped her, and threatened to kill her. "People generally confess falsely to get out of the interrogation room," Guarnera said. She had many bruises bite marks on her back patches of hair pulled out and a broken arm. Prosecutors say Lucio fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter but Lucio has long denied that, saying Mariah died from injuries sustained during a fall down a flight of stairs. Lucio is set to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from the Innocence Project: Ms. Lucio is facing execution on April 27 for a crime that never occurred. Among the tips is to make the victim feel safe, arrange for an advocate to be present in the room, express compassion and not interrupt the victim. Yara Shahidi children: Does Yara Shahidi have children? At Ms. Lucios trial, the medical examiner testified that the bruises and injuries on Mariahs body could only have been caused by abuse. 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. Nearly 15 years later, Lucio, 53, remains on death row at Mountain View Unit prison in Gatesville, Texas. As the interrogation dragged on, Lucio told detectives that she had hit Mariah in the past, but did not say she killed the little girl. They used coercive methods known to produce false confessions. Lacking solid physical evidence, Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos presented Ms. Lucios conciliatory statement to the jury as a confession to homicide and sought the death penalty. "Melissa Lucio has already thoroughly litigated the issues raised during her defense, including the theories that her statement was coerced and that her two-year-old daughter Mariah. Lucio had been sexually assaulted multiple times, starting at age 6, and had been physically and emotionally abused by two husbands. She is now fighting to stop her April 27 execution. Melissa Lucio has spent the last 15 years on death row after she was convicted of capital murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. "Do it real hard," he said. [9] She was then told by Escalon: "Right now, it looks like you're a cold-blooded killer. 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. Lucio claims that starting when she was seven years old, her mothers boyfriend sexually abused her for approximately two years. Child Protective Services found that Lucios younger children were often left with their older siblings during a previous investigation into her for neglecting her children. Details about what allegedly happened in the interrogation room were also outlined in the clemency petition. According to Bonowitz, factors like ableism and racial and socioeconomic bias in the criminal justice system pose too much of a threat to warrant the use of the death penalty. Family photo via AP The model was developed with the help of psychologists and takes a nonconfrontational approach to interrogations. And that's as much as people want to know," he said. Lucio, born in Lubbock, Texas, endured years of abuse and violence, according to her attorneys. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. 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. The local hospital said the child had passed away. 27, 2022 for the 2007 death of Mariah. Death Penalty Action started the Free Melissa Lucio project shortly after Lucio was notified of her execution date. After several hours of interrogation, Ms. Lucio said, I guess I did it, and made other incriminating statements, to get the officers to end the interrogation. "Our campaign is called Free Melissa Lucio because we don't want to just save her, we want her out," Bonowitz said. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. 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. Eighty-three Texas representatives signed a letter asking that she be granted clemency. tiktokscr.parentNode.insertBefore(jsTikTok, tiktokscr); Hours after Melissa Lucio's 2-year-old daughter died in 2007, Texas Rangers took Lucio to an interrogation room where they yelled at her, threatened her and showed her pictures of her dead child, her attorneys said. Convicted of murdering one of her 9 children, her 2 year old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. The State of Texas has scheduled Ms. Lucios execution for April 27, for a crime that never occurred. Liliana Segura, Jordan Smith. The parole board was scheduled to vote on Lucio's clemency petition two days before the execution. Lucio, 40, of Harlingen was found guilty of capital murder for the death of her 21/2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. "She was not evil. In this undated photograph, Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio is holding one of her sons, John. Melissa Lucio was found guilty of a very serious crime called capital murder. Guadalupe Lucio and Melissa Lucio had their first five children together when they were just 16 years old with their youngest daughter Lucio being the most recent addition. Abbott's office, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles did not immediately respond to ABC News' requests for comment. 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. . I'm responsible for it," she said, according to the petition. They implied that if she did not confess, she wouldn't be allowed to attend Mariahs funeral. Detectives by law are also not allowed to lie to suspects. Studies have shown that even trained forensic dentists cant agree whether or not an injury is a bite mark. They found out that Mariahs arm had been broken two to seven weeks before she died. At 6 years old, she was sexually assaulted by one of her mother's partners, her legal team said in the clemency petition. Alice Kelly is a senior news and entertainment editor for YourTango. Advertisement : [emailprotected] The medical examiner also testified at trial that a mark on Mariahs body were bite marks. 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. Here are 5 things to . 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.. 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. The brief states that Lucio's subdued behavior and acquiescence during interrogation were the result of prior trauma as a survivor of abuse. Later on, Lucio had seven children with Robert Alvarez. Without that context, the jury was undoubtedly swayed by Ms. Lucios statement and the Texas Rangers testimony about her demeanor during the interrogation. This undated handout photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Melissa Lucio. Five of Lucios children were not living with her at the time of Mariah's death. She claimed that he was frequently physically abusive and drug and alcohol-dependent. 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. Michelle Lucio, John's wife who knew Melissa Lucio prior to her conviction, recalled the conversations with her during their visits in prison. He concluded that Dr. Farley appeared to have jumped to wrong conclusions. Mariahs autopsy showed signs of a blood coagulation disorder, which causes profuse bruising throughout the body. The tragic incident that took away a young life happened in her own house. She has maintained her innocence, and Cornell Law School professor Sandra Babcock has called the prosecution "by far the weakest capital case I've ever seen". 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. 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. Melissa Lucio and Robert Alvarez welcomed Mariah into the world in September 2004. [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. Read and share these key facts before Texas makes the irreversible mistake of killing an innocent woman. "I don't want to be in that room on April 27 to see her get executed," Michelle Lucio said. Please consult your doctor before taking any action. Lucio also has a lower-than-average IQ. if(isYTTikTok == 1){ 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. Mariah was the twelfth child of Lucio. They also say Lucio wasn't allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession. 89.44.32.192 Unprecedented pictures of Melissa Lucio 's examination have surfaced because of the absence of life column prisoner inside the narrative " Death by Mama" airs on ABC. "https:" : "http:") + '//www.tiktok.com/embed.js'; RELATED: Oklahoma Gov. Selina recalls her mother excluding Mariah, keeping her separate from her other children on a number of occasions. Her husband and Mariah's father, Robert Alvarez, was sentenced to four years in prison for child endangerment. Keller, P.J., joined except for points 4 and 11, in which she concurs. Lucio is set to be executed on April 27 for the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah. "[20], In January 2022, Cameron County officials signed an execution warrant for Lucio. var tiktokscr = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; He says he didnt know about Mariah Alvarezs serious injuries before she passed away. Bite mark analysis has been. Alexander Molony Siblings: Who Are Alexander Molony Siblings? Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a134b9f398d2f98 He continued by telling her, "We already know what happened". According to court documents, Melissa Lucio was born on June 18, 1969, in Lubbock, Texas. Lucio says she regrets the confession and her advocates suggest that. } According to Dr. Young, Melissa Lucio should not be executed because he believes she is innocent. The Cameron Countys new district attorney, the courts, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, and Gov. Your IP: Mariah's mother, Melissa Lucio was convicted of capital murder in this case. RELATED: 5 Death Penalty Facts That Will Make You Want To Abolish It Now. 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. If we had heard passionately from the defense defending her in some way, we might have reached a different decision," juror Johnny Galvan wrote in an affidavit. Alexander Molony Girlfriend: Who Is Alexander Molony Girlfriend? Hundreds of anti-domestic violence/sexual assault organizations and 18 Texas exonerees have voiced support for clemency for Ms. Lucio. Thank you for visiting us. [21] Lucio subsequently petitioned for clemency. var isYTTikTok = 1; She also spoke in one of her sisters TikToks and claimed that blame was placed on her in an attempt to free Lucio. Research has shown that survivors of sexual abuse and violence, like Ms. Lucio, are even more vulnerable to falsely confessing under such coercive conditions. 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. Only a barbaric people allow such depravity. Police contaminate the persons statement meaning they feed the innocent person crime facts or a specific narrative of guilt. During her interrogation, Ms. Lucio asserted her innocence more than 100 times, until she was manipulated into falsely taking responsibility for some of Mariahs injuries by police officers. Help us advocate for the innocent by sharing the latest news from the Innocence Project. Instead, those fighting for Lucio to be granted clemency claim she is a survivor of child physical and sexual abuse who was coerced into confessing to Mariahs murder. 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