Family and friends of Melissa Lucio, the Latina mother sentenced to death for the death of her 2-year-old daughter, continue to insist on her innocence.
This Wednesday they tried to speak with the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, and although he did not receive them, his press office assured the local station Telemundo 40 that an official statement on the matter will be ready in the coming days.
“We want the governor to release my sister, to watch the documentary [
The State of Texas vs.
Melissa
],” said Lucio's sister, Sonia Valencia, at a protest in Harlingen.
Melissa Lucio, who has been behind bars for 15 years, was sentenced to death in 2008 for the death of her youngest daughter Mariah.
She is the only Latina on Texas death row, and her execution is scheduled for April 27.
[This Latina mother will receive the lethal injection in Texas. Her family asks the justice to see a movie that can change everything]
The lawyers, who have less than 80 days to stop the execution, fear they will not be heard.
Melissa Lucio, in a scene from the documentary 'The State of Texas vs Melissa' by Sabrina van Tassel.EFE/Cyril Thomas/Tribeca
“Two months is too little time
,” said the director of the Innocence Project organization, Vanessa Potkin, to Telemundo 40.
“We have filed a petition to reverse the execution of Melissa Lucio.
In this case
there is significant evidence pointing to her innocence.
But also, there is an investigation that needs to be done," Potkin said.
The organization recently filed a petition with the Cameron County Court 138 requesting to re-investigate the case.
[This Latino prisoner should be executed but he has a last wish that Texas does not want to fulfill]
"There is a lot of doubt in this case and she was convicted in what was a tragic accident as there was never any physical evidence or witness testimony to establish that Melissa abused Mariah or any of her children, much less killed them," he added.
The accusation against Lucius
Lucio was accused of killing the youngest of her 14 children.
Police found the girl unconscious with bruises, bite marks and a broken arm when she responded to an emergency call on February 17, 2007. The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The Hispanic mother told police
her daughter fell down the stairs and was killed
, according to court documents.
The family, supported by several organizations, including Death Penalty Action, a group against the death penalty, warned in one of its petitions to the prosecutor that the case was riddled with inconsistencies.
Abraham J. Bonowitz, director of this organization, assured this Monday that they delivered some 30,000 signatures asking the prosecutor to see the documentary directed by Sabrina van Tassel to verify that there is no evidence that Lucio killed his daughter, so he should not have been sentenced to die.
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After the death of the minor, the medical examiner testified during the trial that the autopsy revealed that the girl did not die when she fell down the stairs and that some of her injuries indicated death due to blunt force trauma.
[Execution of woman sentenced to death for killing a mother and stealing her baby halted]
However, the documentary highlights that the public defender assigned to Lucio, Peter Gilman, not only did not speak with any family member or acquaintance of the accused to find out about her docile character or the traumas she carried after a childhood of abuse, but hid confessions that another daughter of the woman pushed the deceased girl down some steep stairs.
It also points out that Lucio was possibly forced to confess when questioned for several hours that she was responsible for the bite marks and bruises on the minor's body.
“I am sure that Melissa is innocent,” her mother, Esperanza Correa Treviño, assured the quoted media outlet.
However, Selina Flores, one of Lucio's daughters, said on her TikTok social network account that the documentary is biased in favor of her mother and does not include contributions from many of the woman's children about alleged abuse, as reported. the Efe agency.
"I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion about who they think is guilty, but the only ones who know the truth are those who were in the house when the abuse occurred," Flores said in a message that has thousands of views.
He also expressed sadness at hearing that his mother is close to being executed and made it clear that he does not want it even though he believes her guilty.