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Each Galvan and the Innocence Undertaking, a number one group that has fought to exonerate wrongly convicted individuals, noted that prosecutors’ case largely rested on the confession that Lucio gave after hours of interrogation. Detectives tormented Lucio the night time of Mariah’s demise. The kid had fallen down some stairs however initially seemed to be superb. However two days later, she by no means woke again up from a nap.
“Within the interrogation room, officers berated and intimidated Ms. Lucio, who was pregnant and nonetheless reeling from the lack of her little one, for 5 hours,” the Innocence Undertaking stated. “Analysis has proven that survivors of sexual abuse and violence, like Ms. Lucio, are extra weak to falsely confessing beneath such coercive circumstances.”
However at 3 AM, “bodily and emotionally exhausted” from hours of interrogation, Lucio stated “’I suppose I did it’ within the hopes that they’d finish the interrogation.” This coerced assertion was then utilized in her trial as a false confession. In his op-ed, Galvan Jr. wrote that he was not made conscious of Lucio’s historical past as a bodily and sexual abuse sufferer, and the way that “made her weak to falsely confess when subjected to aggressive interrogation ways on the night time of her daughter’s demise.”
He stated nobody advised him that she pleaded her innocence greater than 100 occasions earlier than saying, beneath duress, that she did it. However Lucio has at all times been clear: “Mariah was my child, I cherished her,” she said final month, in response to Innocence Undertaking.
There have been additional disturbing developments within the time since Lucio’s conviction. Armando Villalobos, the Cameron County district lawyer who fought to have her executed as part of a likely cynical reelection ploy, has himself been sentenced to greater than a decade in jail on fees of bribery and extortion. “Mr. Villalobos argued that Ms. Lucio abused her daughter resulting in her demise, however 1000’s of pages of interviews and information from Youngster Protecting Companies present that Ms. Lucio’s youngsters by no means stated she was violent with any of them,” Innocence Undertaking continued.
Not with simply days till Lucio could grow to be the primary Latina to be executed by the state of Texas, greater than 80 state lawmakers have referred to as on “Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant Lucio clemency or a reprieve,” the Dallas Observer reports.
“New proof that has emerged since Ms. Lucio’s trial factors to the truth that her daughter, Mariah, died after a tragic accident and never by her mom’s fingers,” lawmakers wrote. “A commutation or a reprieve would give her legal professionals the time they should develop all of the proof that might show Ms. Lucio’s innocence. Whereas we perceive the gravity of the problem earlier than you and the necessary function that the Board of Pardons and Paroles performs in our legal justice system, we additionally imagine this is a chance to forestall a miscarriage of justice that might undermine public belief in our authorized system.”
“Ms. Lucio’s case is one that offers even proponents of the demise penalty pause,” lawmakers continued. “Medical doctors who just lately reviewed the post-mortem—together with a number one specialist from The College of Texas Medical Department—concluded that the jury heard false testimony about whether or not Mariah was abused.”
“A panel of federal judges on the Fifth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals agreed in a unanimous three-judge opinion that Ms. Lucio was denied the precise to current ‘a significant protection,’” Innocence Undertaking continued. “And in a subsequent resolution following an enchantment from the state, 10 out of the Fifth Circuit’s 17 judges agreed that the exclusion of the psychologist’s testimony skewed the proof in opposition to Ms. Lucio.”
Innocence Undertaking said final month that 100,000 individuals had signed a petition urging the state to halt Lucio’s execution. Since that point, that quantity has swelled to over 230,000. Simply days in the past, Lucio’s staff appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for a stay of execution.
“I wish to inform my supporters that I’m very grateful for all of the letters they’ve despatched me, their phrases of encouragement, their help, and their perception in me,” she stated in response to Innocence Undertaking. “I’m simply very excited that so many individuals have signed the petition, so many have believed in me and know that I used to be wrongfully convicted, I’m hoping that I will likely be let loose from this place.” Click on right here and assist a life by urging Gov. Greg Abbott to grant clemency for Melissa Lucio.
