A Texas appeals court on Monday delayed the execution of Melissa Lucio amid growing doubts about whether she fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter in a case that has garnered the support of lawmakers, celebrities and even some jurors who sentenced her to death.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a request by Lucio’s lawyers for a stay of execution so a lower court can review her claims that new evidence would exonerate her.
Lucio, 52, was set to be executed by lethal injection Wednesday for the 2007 death of her daughter Mariah in Harlingen, a city of about 75,000 in Texas’ southern tip.
Prosecutors have maintained that the girl was the victim of abuse and noted that her body was covered in bruises. Lucio’s lawyers say Mariah died from injuries she sustained in a fall down a steep staircase several days before she died.
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“I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence,” Lucio said in a statement provided by her lawyers. “Mariah is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren. I will use my time to help bring them to Christ. I am deeply grateful to everyone who prayed for me and spoke out on my behalf.”
I thank God for my life. I have always trusted in Him. I am grateful the Court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence. Mariah is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren. I will use my time to help bring them to Christ. I am deeply grateful to everyone who prayed for me and spoke out on my behalf.
Melissa Lucio
April 25, 2022
Lucio’s mother, Esperanza Treviño, tearfully thanked all of her daughter’s supporters, saying, “Thank God for the miracle.”
Lucio's son John Lucio visited his mother in prison after Monday's ruling.
"She said she's going to be up all night writing to a lot of people," John Lucio told reporters after the visit.
Lucio was first told her execution had been delayed in a phone call with state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican who has helped lead a bipartisan effort to halt her execution, said Vanessa Potkin, one of Lucio’s attorneys who is with the Innocence Project.
“She sobbed. She was just overwhelmed,” said Potkin.
In a statement, Leach said he was grateful the appeals court had “pushed the pause button on her execution, saving the state of Texas from the irreversible blunder of potentially killing an innocent citizen.”
It was not immediately known when the lower court begin reviewing her case.
“We know that Melissa’s children—Mariah’s brothers and sisters—and Mariah’s grandparents, aunts and uncles are all relieved and grateful that Melissa’s life will not be taken by the State of Texas. And we believe the court honored Mariah’s memory because Melissa is innocent," said Tivon Schardl, Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Texas, Capital Habeas Unit, one of Lucio’s attorneys. "Melissa is entitled to a new, fair trial. The people of Texas are entitled to a new, fair trial. Texans should be grateful and proud that the Court of Criminal Appeals has given Melissa’s legal team the opportunity to present the new evidence of Melissa’s innocence to the Cameron County district court.
Lucio's case has garnered the support of lawmakers, celebrities and even some of the jurors who sentenced her to death.
Nearly half of the jurors who sentenced Lucio to die for the death of one of her 14 children have called for her upcoming execution to be halted and for her to get a new trial.
Her lawyers said new evidence shows that Mariah's injuries, including a blow to the head, were caused by a fall down a steep staircase, and many lawmakers and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, an advocate for criminal justice reform, and Amanda Knox -- an American whose murder conviction in the death of a British student in Italy was overturned -- have rallied to Lucio's cause.
Prosecutors, though, maintain that the girl was the victim of child abuse.
Lucio's lawyers have filed various legal appeals seeking to stop her execution. She also has a clemency application before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is set to consider her case Monday.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott could play a role in deciding Lucio's fate.
If put to death, Lucio would be the first Latina ever executed by Texas and the first woman the state has put to death since 2014.
WHAT ISSUES ARE BEING DEBATED?
Lucio's attorneys say her capital 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. They say Lucio wasn't allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession.
Her lawyers also contend that unscientific and false evidence misled jurors into believing Mariah's injuries only could have been caused by physical abuse and not by medical complications from a severe fall.
"I knew that what I was accused of doing was not true. My children have always been my world and although my choices in life were not good I would have never hurt any of my children in such a way," Lucio wrote in a letter to Texas lawmakers.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, whose office prosecuted the case, has said he disagrees with Lucio's lawyers' claims that new evidence would exonerate her. Prosecutors say Lucio had a history of drug abuse and at times had lost custody of some of her 14 children.
During a sometimes contentious Texas House committee hearing on Lucio's case this month, Saenz initially pushed back on requests to use his power to stop the execution, before later saying he would intervene if the courts didn't act.
"I don't disagree with all the scrutiny this case is getting. I welcome that," Saenz said.
Armando Villalobos was the county's district attorney when Lucio was convicted in 2008, and Lucio's lawyers allege that he pushed for a conviction to help his reelection bid. In 2014, Villalobos was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for a bribery scheme related to offering favorable prosecutorial decisions.
Luis Saenz, the current Cameron County District Attorney, reportedly told local media outlets in the Rio Grande Valley that he looks forward to prosecuting this case.
WHO IS CALLING FOR LUCIO'S EXECUTION TO BE STOPPED?
More than half the members of the Texas Legislature have asked that her execution be halted. A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers traveled this month to Gatesville, where the state houses female death row inmates and prayed with Lucio.
Five of the 12 jurors who sentenced Lucio and one alternate juror have questioned their decision and asked she get a new trial.
Lucio's cause also has the backing of faith leaders and was featured on HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."
Lucio's family and supporters have been traveling throughout Texas and holding rallies and screenings of a 2020 documentary about her case, "The State of Texas vs. Melissa."
Before the court decision Monday, Lucio's supporters held a prayer vigil inside the state Capitol in Austin as they waited for word from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on her clemency application. On Saturday, supporters held rallies in 16 U.S. cities, including Houston, Boston, and Columbus, Ohio.
WHERE DO EFFORTS TO HALT HER EXECUTION STAND?
Another appeal seeking to stop Lucio's execution is pending in federal court.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had been set Monday to consider a request to either commute her death sentence to life imprisonment or grant her a 120-day execution reprieve, but that hearing was put off by the appeals court's order.
Any decision by the board to commute her sentence or grant the reprieve would have needed Abbott's approval. The governor has granted clemency to only 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 led the effort to spare his son's life.
HOW FREQUENTLY ARE WOMEN EXECUTED?
It's rare in the U.S., according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. Women have accounted for only 3.6% of the more than 16,000 confirmed executions in the U.S. dating back to the colonial period in the 1600s, according to the group's data.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 17 women have been executed throughout the nation, according to the data. Texas has put more women to death -- 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 following a 17-year hiatus. The Justice Department has halted executions again under the Biden administration.
