M.Adre of 14 children, 53, of Mexican descent, Melissa Lucio will be executed on April 27 in the Mountain View prison in Gatesville, Texas. Convicted on charges of killing two-year-old daughter Mariah in 2007: the little girl died in her sleep two days after a fall from the stairs, so her mother has told it countless times, which occurred during a moment of distraction.
Mother, Mexican, abused. On death row
In the statements of the children, Melissa always appears as a patient and non-violent mother. Extreme poverty and the past of drugs and violence suffered against him. And a sentence, said after having denied the murder a thousand times, during a river and urgent interrogation: “It is probable that I am responsible”. He phrase that can be interpreted in many ways. In the case of Melissa Lucio the defense was then so low that Sandra Babcock, professor at Cornell Law School and founder of the Cornell Center on the death penalty in the world, said: “I’ve been dealing with capital cases for thirty years, but this is by far the least well founded of all“. Here the story and the petition of Melissa Lucio.
The documentary on the story of Melissa Lucio
In 2020, journalist Sabrina Van Tassel made the documentary “El Estado de Texas vs Melissa”selected for Tribeca in 2020 and winner of a series of awards, including the award for best documentary by Raindance, in which he highlights the controversial points of the judicial process.
Without money, the defense is weak
Born in the Rio Grande Valley, in the poorest heart of the South Texas Latin community, Melissa grew up in a run-down environment. After a childhood filled with abuse, she had an affair with two different men, which led to her churning out one child after another – 14 children in all.. In 2007, during a move, the tragedy of little Mariah. Melissa does not have the resources to afford a proper legal department, while Texas police and district attorney Armando Villalobos (who was indicted in 2014 for corruption and extortion and has been serving a 13-year prison sentence since then), go to great lengths to get her condemned.
In his favor, also Kim Kardashian
Many have mobilized in favor of Melissa: l‘Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), acknowledging the weakness of the evidence against the woman, asked the United States to postpone her execution until her guilt is clarified. But they also sided in her favor Kim Kardashian, presenter John Oliverseveral Democratic lawmakers from Texas and the French government.
Abused Woman Syndrome
Melissa Lucio, dressed in white, meets some activists committed to her (Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach via AP)
But in the US system, once a trial ends in sentencing, the chances of the judgment being reviewed are extremely slim. The Federal Court of Appeal, in 2019, had indeed found the illegitimate exclusion, by the judge, of one of the evidence favorable to Melissa: that is the testimony of a psychologist, John Pinkerman, who he felt the extreme manipulability of the woman, abused all her life. Since the first interrogation, which lasted from 10 in the evening to 3.30 at night. The psychologist had spoken of “battered woman syndrome who takes the blame for everything that happens in the family“. The prosecution, however, challenges the decision and in February 2021, with a majority of 10 to 7, confirms the sentence: the State of Texas concludes that yes, the defendant had been denied the right to defend herself, but that the rules procedural rules prevented his sentence from being overturned.
Grace for Melissa Lucio
Held in total isolation (one of the toughest prison conditions imaginable) Melissa Lucio has little to hope for: and this little is the pardon or commutation of the sentence, which only the Texan governor Abbott could grant her. But it is difficult for that to happen.
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