Execution date set for Harlingen mom for murdering daughter

An April 27 execution date has been scheduled for a Harlingen mom sitting on death row.

Melissa Lucio, 53, has been detained in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility since her July 2008 conviction on capital murder charges.

A Cameron County jury found Lucio guilty in the beating death of her two-year-old daughter Mariah, and Lucio was sentenced to death. Regardless, Lucio has denied beating her daughter or causing her death.

Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz on Wednesday asked that an execution date be set for Lucio in April. One day later, 138th state District Court Judge Gabriela Garcia signed an order setting Lucio’s execution date.

The order states the director of the TDCJ is “hereby commanded, ordered, and directed to carry out this sentence of death by intravenous injection as a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause the death of the said Melissa E. Lucio until the said Melissa E. Lucio is dead.”

On Friday, Lucio’s defense team issued the following statement: “Today, the 138th District Court in Cameron County, Texas scheduled Melissa Lucio’s execution for April 27th, 2022.”

Her lawyer, A. Richard Ellis, stated, “Melissa Lucio is a battered woman who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death for the accidental death of her daughter, who had fallen down the stairs at the family’s home. Her conviction rested on ambiguous statements Melissa made to police in response to a coercive, late-night interrogation by male police officers. We will fight not only to prevent Melissa’s execution but also to win her exoneration of these false charges.”

In a prepared statement, the district attorney said: “The condition of Mariah’s body indicated that she had been severely beaten. There were bruises in various states of healing covering her body, there were bite marks on her back, one of her arms had been broken probably about 2 to 7 weeks prior to her death and she was missing portions of her hair where it had been pulled out by the roots. Her autopsy revealed bruised kidneys, a bruised spinal cord and bruised lungs. The emergency room physician testing that this was the ‘absolute worst’ case of child abuse that he had seen in his 30 years of practice.”

Saenz said Lucio has filed at least six different appeals and all were dismissed or denied by the courts, including the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

“ The time has come to finally carry out the sentence legally imposed by a jury of her peers and for justice for 2-year-old Mariah,” the district attorney said.

On the night of Mariah’s death on Feb. 17, 2007, Lucio told police and EMS personnel that Mariah had fallen down some stairs, according to federal court documents.

Later that night, during a videotaped interview with investigators, Lucio explained that she had caused the bruises on Mariah’s body by spanking Mariah “real hard” and Lucio said “nobody else would hit her.”

During an interview with a Texas Rangers investigator, Lucio admitted she was responsible for her daughter’s death, according to documents. Lucio’s appeal’s attorney says she was coerced to confess.

Sandra Babcock, a professor at Cornell Law School, who represents several women’s organizations that have intervened in Lucio’s case, stated: “Women’s groups around the country have rallied to Melissa’s defense because of their belief that she was convicted after an unfair trial. Melissa’s trial was tainted by gender discrimination, and everyone who believes in the rights of victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse should be outraged by her death sentence.”

Meanwhile, a petition circulating on a non-profit organization website seeks to help the Harlingen mother of 14 children.

The request is to get 25,000 signatures that will be submitted to the Texas Board of Pardons and Gov. Greg Abbott, asking that they stop the execution of Melissa Lucio for the “alleged murder of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah.”

As of Friday, the petition had 18,586 signatures.

Lucio appealed her conviction; The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a Texas Court ruling and found that Lucio’s right to a “complete defense” had been violated in her original trial, the petition states.

In February 2021, the same court nullified the decision upon a rehearing and reinstated Lucio’s death sentence. The U.S. Supreme Court in October 2021 declined to hear Lucio’s case.

The petition reads: “As part of your consideration for clemency in this case, we urge you to take the unusual step of watching the film, ‘The State of Texas vs. Melissa,’ an award-winning new documentary which sheds light on the controversy of her conviction, revealing her case without no investigation, a coerced confession, an incomplete defense, and a corrupt DA.”

“ We further urge you to find a path toward clemency in this case and spare the life of Lucio.”

Actionnetwork.org, states that “The State of Texas vs. Melissa,” a 2020 documentary by Sabrina Van Tassel, outlines alleged missteps that took place in Melissa’s trial:

>>Lucio’s lawyers have contested the cause of death, presenting expert testimony from a neurosurgeon that Mariah may instead have died from head trauma caused by falling down a flight of stairs, a fall that was witnessed by Melissa’s children.

>>Lucio’s original lawyer did not call any of her children as witnesses, including the ones who saw Mariah fall down the stairs. What’s more, he willingly ignored evidence that another child had admitted being abusive to Mariah. Right after the trial, the attorney became a Cameron County prosecutor.

>>Raw footage shows the interrogation, which lasted almost seven hours on the night of Mariah’s death, to be coercive.

>>Dr. John Pinkerman, a psychologist, and Norma Villanueva, a mitigation specialist, hoped to testify that Lucio was susceptible to making a false confession during a coercive investigation, were both barred by the trial court from testifying as to her innocence during the guilt/innocence phase of her trial.

>>Armando Villalobos, the district attorney who prosecuted Lucio’s case, was convicted of bribery and extortion in 2014 for accepting over $100,000 in exchange for favorable outcomes in criminal trials. He is now serving a 13-year sentence in prison. He was known to bribe judges and lawyers and was suspected of using Melissa’s case to be re-elected.

The non-profit states the petition was not to be delivered unless and until an execution date is set and clemency is to be considered.

Van Tassel’s documentary, “The State of Texas vs. Melissa,” is currently available for streaming on Hulu.com.

lmartinez@brownsv