Kim Kardashian and different high-profile figures, together with each Democratic and Republican politicians, are a clemency for Melissa Lucio, the Texas girl who is because of be executed April 27.
NY Put up picture composite
Melissa Lucio spends her days on demise row in Gatesville, Texas, knitting blankets for her jail guards, attempting to show herself to crochet and praying for justice.
Lucio, 53, who was convicted of killing her two-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez, in 2007, is scheduled to be executed on Wed., April 27. However a military of defenders, together with Kim Kardashian, “Final Week Tonight” host John Oliver and activist Amanda Knox — who was herself wrongly convicted of killing her roommate in Italy in 2007 — are demanding clemency.
They declare Lucio is harmless: a sufferer of a corrupt prosecutor, aggressive and sloppy police ways, and a botched protection that ignored key medical proof and her personal historical past as an impoverished, battered mom of 14 kids.
“We're on the verge of sending a lady to an execution primarily based on false and deceptive medical proof,” stated Vanessa Potkin, Director of Particular Litigation on the Innocence Challenge, a New York-based non-profit that works to free the harmless. The group took up Lucio’s case in January.
“It’s egregious to be in a scenario the place we're days away from execution and there was by no means any credible proof to convict her,” she instructed The Put up.
Earlier this month, Kardashian posted a letter addressed to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is scheduled to rule on Lucio’s enchantment on Monday, on her Twitter account, which has 72.1 million followers. The letter, which pleads with Texas authorities to spare Lucio’s life, was signed by 11 of Lucio’s kids.
“There are such a lot of unresolved questions surrounding this case and the proof that was used to convict her,” tweeted Kardashian.
Kardashian efficiently pushed to free Alice Marie Johnson, who was serving a life sentence on a drug cost. Johnson’s sentence was commuted by former President Donald Trump in 2018, after she had spent 22 years in jail for a first-time, non-violent drug offense.
If a majority of the board votes for clemency, Abbott can cease the execution.
Final month, a number one forensic pediatric pathologist who reviewed Mariah’s post-mortem studies famous in a bombshell court docket assertion that “the investigation into Mariah’s demise seems to have been considerably prejudiced, not proof primarily based and with out an enough consideration of other points.”
Janice Ophoven, who relies in Minnesota, has backed up Lucio’s declare that Mariah died from problems from a fall down steep stairs, and her demise had “nothing to do with intentional power.” Mariah, who had additionally had a medical dysfunction that triggered bruising, was not a sufferer of kid abuse as a Texas health worker argued at Lucio’s trial, court docket papers say.
However Lucio was convicted of capital homicide in 2008 and sentenced to demise. Her conviction was upheld on enchantment three years later. A panel of Fifth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals judges dominated in 2019 that Lucio had been denied the chance to current a correct protection
Now, at the very least 5 jurors who convicted Lucio at her preliminary trial have come ahead to demand a halt to her execution, primarily based on proof that was not offered on the listening to.
“I used to be disheartened to study that there was extra proof that was not offered at trial,” wrote Melissa Quintanilla, the foreperson on Lucio’s jury. “I imagine that Ms. Lucio deserves a brand new trial and for a brand new jury to listen to this proof. Figuring out what I do know now, I don’t suppose she ought to be executed.”
Dozens of Texas lawmakers — each Democrats and Republicans — have additionally rallied behind Lucio. Rep Jeff Leach, a Republican who heads up the Texas Home of Representatives’ Legal Justice Reform Committee, referred to as Lucio’s case “troubling and surprising” in an announcement to CNN earlier this month.
“The system actually failed her at each flip.” Leach stated.
Melissa Elizabeth Correa was born right into a life “formed by bodily, emotional and sexual abuse” in Lubbock, Texas, on July 18, 1968, in accordance with a February report by the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights, which has additionally referred to as for her to be spared the demise penalty.
By the point she was 6, Lucio was sexually abused by her mom’s associate, and later by an uncle. The verbal and bodily assaults continued after she married her first husband, 20-year-old Guadalupe Lucio, on the age of 16.
The couple moved to Houston, removed from household and buddies in southern Texas. Guadalupe, an alcoholic and a drug supplier, abused Lucio repeatedly, in accordance with court docket papers. Lucio’s sister-in-law launched her to cocaine whereas she was nonetheless 16. A 12 months later, Lucio had her first miscarriage, though she ultimately gave delivery to 5 kids with Guadalupe.
By the age of 23, Lucio discovered herself elevating her kids on her personal after Guadalupe deserted her, in accordance with court docket filings. The household struggled with substance abuse and excessive poverty. Lucio and her boyfriend Robert Antonio Alvarez moved 26 occasions between 1994 and 2007 as a result of they had been unable to pay hire or utilities, in accordance with court docket papers. Electrical energy and working water had been routinely lower off, and at numerous occasions the household — now comprised of 12 kids — used a neighbor’s hose to fill a trash can with water for baths and to clean dishes.
Alvarez was abusive to each Lucio and the youngsters, in accordance with police studies and court docket filings seen by The Put up.
“He punched her. He threw beer bottles at her head. He kicked her along with his steel-toed boots. He spit on her. He dragged her by her hair. He pushed her, knocking her head towards the wall. He raped her repeatedly,” court docket papers say.
However in early 2007, Lucio’s life appeared to take a flip for the higher. Pregnant with twins, she had a gentle job as a janitor. Common drug exams, administered per week earlier than Mariah died, confirmed that Lucio was drug free. The household was excited in regards to the transfer to a brand new house, and the mom was busy packing up the household’s possessions when she seen that her youngest daughter had gone lacking.
The kid, who had hassle strolling and suffered developmental delays since delivery, had fallen down the house’s 14 steep out of doors stairs
“Melissa gave thanks that Mariah didn't look like severely injured,” court docket papers say. “Tragically, Mariah had actually suffered inner accidents and would deteriorate over the following two days.”
After the household moved into their new house, Mariah was congested, had been sleeping excessively and refused to eat. When she stopped respiratory on Feb. 17, 2007, Lucio referred to as 911. Mariah died quickly after.
Lucio’s nightmare began with the arrival of emergency providers. When she instructed a paramedic that the kid had fallen down the steps two days earlier, he instantly turned suspicious, noting that there have been only a few stairs within the house. The autumn had occurred on the previous house however this reality was by no means entered into proof.
“That’s when the tunnel imaginative and prescient kicks in and the case retains constructing round unreliable proof,” Potkin instructed The Put up Wednesday. “Melissa was speaking in regards to the staircase that triggered the accident at her earlier house, however when the paramedic stated he was suspicious, the presumption of guilt that led to her conviction started.”
What adopted was a “marathon” five-hour interrogation of Lucio by a number of law enforcement officials and a Texas Ranger. Lucio denied hurting Mariah greater than 100 occasions in the course of the late evening grilling as cops confirmed her footage of her useless baby. However interrogators reportedly refused to simply accept a response that was not an act of contrition. Overwhelmed by shock and grief, Lucio “yielded to the interrogator’s calls for to ‘get it over with,'” court docket papers say.
In additional than 1,000 pages of studies from the state’s Baby Protecting Providers, whose brokers visited Lucio’s house over time, there aren't any mentions of the mom abusing her kids, in accordance with her court docket file.
However the compelled confession coloured the post-mortem outcomes that led to her conviction, Lucio’s defenders say. The state’s health worker, Norma Jean Farley, was influenced by the murder speculation and didn't look at different elements that might have contributed to Mariah’s demise, in accordance with court docket papers. Farley concluded that Mariah’s accidents will need to have occurred 24 hours earlier than her demise, and that marks on her neck had been human bites. She did not keep in mind that Mariah suffered from a blood coagulation dysfunction that triggered bruising all through her physique.
The post-mortem was so biased by these unreliable statements that as an alternative of contemplating the reason for damage and demise, the health worker solely reached conclusions that backed up homicide
Vanessa Potkin, Director of Particular Litigation on the Innocence Challenge
“The post-mortem was so biased by these unreliable statements that as an alternative of contemplating the reason for damage and demise, the health worker solely reached conclusions that backed up homicide,” Potkin stated.
The push to convict Lucio was additionally pushed by Armando Villalobos, the Cameron County District Lawyer who was going through an election and below quite a lot of strain from voters about his perceived leniency on crimes towards kids. Villalobos is at the moment serving a 13-year federal sentence for bribery and extortion that occurred between 2006 and 2012.
“Villalobos and others had been concerned in a scheme to illegally generate earnings for themselves and others by a sample of bribery and extortion, favoritism, improper affect, private self-enrichment, self-dealing, concealment and battle of curiosity,” in accordance with a Division of Justice assertion.
When Lucio was convicted of homicide and sentenced to demise in 2008, she misplaced custody of her kids. She gave delivery in jail to her twins, who had been taken away, Potkin instructed The Put up. Alvarez, Mariah’s father, was prosecuted just for “inflicting damage to a toddler by omission.” He acquired a four-year jail time period, and is now free.
“There are such a lot of elements of this case which might be egregious,” Potkin stated, including that Lucio feels “inspired” by the current groundswell of help and is pleased with the advocacy of her kids on her behalf.
“The demise of our sister Mariah, and the prosecution of our dad and mom tore our household aside,” says the letter to Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, signed by the youngsters. “The injuries by no means totally healed. They most likely by no means will.”
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