In this Feb. 7, 2022 file photo, family members and friends of Melissa Lucio stand outside the Cameron County Adminstrative Building waiting to meet with District Attorney Luis V. Saenz. (Laura B. Martinez/The Brownsville Herald)
The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said a request asking a state judge to recuse herself from hearing a case of a Harlingen woman convicted of killing her toddler daughter does not meet the “high threshold” that would require the judge be recused.
The DA’s Office on June 13 filed a response to a motion filed by the attorneys representing Melissa Lucio asking Judge Gabriela Garcia be removed from hearing the case because two key members of Lucio’s defense team now work for Garcia and District Attorney Luis V. Saenz.
The DA’s motion states “Judge Garcia’s only action in this case has been to set Lucio for execution in furtherance of the judgment and mandates of the courts.”
A Cameron County jury in 2008 found Lucio guilty on one count of capital murder for causing the death of Mariah Alvarez. The little girl had been beaten, prosecutors said. Lucio denies killing her daughter.
The response reads that Garcia never served as a lawyer in Lucio’s case, nor previously practiced with a lawyer in the Lucio case, nor does she have individual or familial interest in the Lucio case.
“Lucio offers no evidence why any reasonable person would question Judge Garcia’s ability to remain impartial in this case,” the response states.
The response further reads, “Judge Garcia enjoys a presumption of fairness, and there is no evidence to question her impartiality. As such, Lucio should be summarily denied in her request to disqualify/and or recuse Judge Garcia.”
Lucio’s team states “as long as Judge Garcia is on the case, Irma Gilman can’t cooperate with Ms. Lucio’s counsel because it would be a prohibited ex parte communication,” said Tivon Schardl, Chief of the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender for the Western District of Texas, and Melissa Lucio’s attorney, in a media release.
The motion against Garcia cites the following reasons:
>> There is a conclusive presumption that court administrator Gilman shared with her employer, Judge Garcia confidential information that Mrs. Gilman obtained through her work on Ms. Lucio’s case.
>> Judge Garcia’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned based on her court administrator’s direct role in Ms. Lucio’s defense.
>> Judge Garcia’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned based on the role her court administrator in current and anticipated proceedings.
Irma Gilman, Garcia’s court administrator, served on Lucio’s 2008 defense team. She is married to Pete Gilman who served as Lucio’s defense attorney during her capital murder trial. Peter Gilman now works for the DA’s office.
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 Ranger Lucio later admitted she was responsible for her daughter’s death, prosecutors said. Lucio’s appeal’s attorney says she was coerced to confess.
Lucio’s execution date had been scheduled for April 27, but she was granted a stay by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled to halt the execution so that a lower court could review four claims from the defendant’s nine assertions:
>>”But for the State’s use of false testimony, no juror would have convicted her;”
>>”previously unavailable scientific evidence would preclude her conviction;”
>>”she is actually innocent;”
>>and “the State suppressed favorable material evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland”
No hearing date has been scheduled to address the claims.
Lucio remains on death row and is at the Mountainview Unit in Gatesville.
