Texas Court Stays Execution of Mom Sentenced for Child's Death

The state claimed she beat a 2-year-old to death. But evidence may show it was the result of a fall down stairs.

A Texas mom who has spent 14 years on death row and was scheduled to be executed Wednesday has been given a reprieve by the state's Court of Criminal Appeals.

In 2007, Melissa Lucio was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. Prosecutors attributed Mariah's death to abuse, but Lucio said Mariah's injuries were the result of a fall down the stairs of the family's apartment.

Lucio, assisted by representation from the Innocence Project, has been fighting for years to prove that Mariah's death was the result of a tragic accident, not murder or abuse. She has claimed that alternative explanations for the child's death were not explored at trial and her confession had been coerced during a lengthy police interrogation. Her other children had been interviewed and told investigators she never beat them. One of them supposedly witnessed Mariah's fall, but the defense did not call on them to testify.

A panel of judges for the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Lucio should get a retrial. But when the state appealed to the full appeals court, judges decided to defer to the state court and uphold the conviction.

For the current appeal in state court, Lucio's attorneys presented nine separate claims as part of a motion to stay her execution. In Monday's order, the Court of Criminal Appeals determined that four of her claims met the threshold to stay her execution and to remand the claims to a trial court for review.

The four claims are significant. The court is willing to consider that false testimony was used to convict Lucio; previously unavailable scientific evidence could exonerate her; the state suppressed favorable evidence; and finally, she may actually be innocent.

"I am grateful the Court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence. Mariah is in my heart today and always," Lucio said in a statement through her attorneys.

CNN reports what will happen next: A court in Brownsville, Texas, will consider the evidence of Lucio's innocence and make a recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The court will then decide whether Lucio should receive a new trial.

To be clear, Lucio hasn't been exonerated. The court is going to look at additional evidence that could clear Lucio as well as the claims that faulty science (like a disputed claim that the child had been bitten by an adult) played a role in Lucio's conviction.

Until then, she remains on death row, but she will at least not be executed on Wednesday.

Lenore Skenazy looked at the complicated details of Lucio's case for Reason in March. Read more about it here.

 

Comments

[Jerryskids]

In the event that she is granted a retrial and found not guilty, will the prosecutor be taking her place on death row?

[Nardz]

She guilty though

[Frank Drackman]

Like Kyle Rittenhouses Prosecutors? I doubt it.

[Vampire Easter Bunnies in Space]

Did anything happen to them? By rights they should be disbarred, f not prosecuted for some of the shit they pulled.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

“Bitch fell down the stairs!”

[kcuch]

Sadly, it is true. Women do earn less than men.

[Vampire Easter Bunnies in Space]

Why is that sad?

[Michael Ejercito]

I will quote Salted Nuts.

https://reason.com/2022/03/14/melissa-lucio-murder-death-penalty-district-attorney/?comments=true#comment-9401919

Holy fuck. Reason, you pathetic rag.

How about checking the fucking court documents?

“The condition of Mariah’s body indicated that she had been severely abused. There were bruises in various stages of healing covering her body, there were bite marks on her back, (2) one of her arms had been broken probably about two to seven weeks before her death, and she was missing portions of her hair where it had been pulled out by the roots. The emergency room physician (Vargas) testified that this was the “absolute worst” case of child abuse that he had seen in his 30 years of practice.”

“(The chief forensic pathologist for Cameron and Hidalgo Counties) testified that Mariah suffered “multiple contusions” to her head area and that “blunt force head trauma . . . basically means, beat about the head with something-an object, a hand, a fist, or slammed.” Farley testified that these injuries would not have been caused by falling down some stairs and that this was the most severe case of child abuse she had ever seen.”

[Nobartium]

Reason is anti-death-penalty, to the point where facts don’t matter.

I mean shit, argue from first principles (death penalty is wrong always) instead of crying a sob story for someone who likely did it.

[mad.casual]

Reason is not anti-death penalty, they support a woman’s right to choose abortion in the 17th trimester using blunt force trauma.

[R Mac]

They also support the death penalty for Ashley Babbit.

[Bruce D]

No, they don’t.

[Roberta]

And what the fuck? If she didn’t do it, then the problem’s not with the death penalty! Otherwise they’d be more enthusiastic about Biden giving clemency to people who’d been convicted under edicts he supported.

[Vampire Easter Bunnies in Space]

No society is really civilized without a well thought out death penalty.

[con_fuse9]

And then you look at the other side:

At Ms. Lucio’s trial, the medical examiner testified that the bruises and injuries on Mariah’s body could only have been caused by abuse. However, pathologists who have reviewed the evidence have concluded that this testimony was false. Mariah’s autopsy showed signs of a blood coagulation disorder, which causes profuse bruising throughout the body. At the time of her death, Mariah was healing from an injury to her arm, which the medical examiner also said was a sign of abuse. However, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who reviewed the evidence concluded that the medical examiner’s testimony was misleading and “there is nothing about” Mariah’s “fracture that indicates that it was the result of an intentional act or abuse” This was an extremely common type of injury among toddlers that can result from a fall from standing height.

The medical examiner also testified at trial that a mark on Mariah’s body were bite marks. Bite mark analysis has been wholly discredited since Ms. Lucio’s trial because it has no scientific basis. Studies have shown that even trained forensic dentists can’t agree whether or not an injury is a bite mark. In 2016, in recognition of the fact that bite mark evidence lacks scientific validity and following the exoneration of a man in Texas convicted based on faulty bite mark evidence, the Texas Forensic Science Commission recommended a state-wide moratorium on the use of bite mark evidence in criminal cases.

[Austin Kiehm]

Bite mark analysis has been wholly discredited since Ms. Lucio’s trial because it has no scientific basis. Studies have shown that even trained forensic dentists can’t agree whether or not an injury is a bite mark. In 2016, in recognition of the fact that bite mark evidence lacks scientific validity and following the exoneration of a man in Texas convicted based on faulty bite mark evidence, the Texas Forensic Science Commission recommended a state-wide moratorium on the use of bite mark evidence in criminal cases.

Yeah, that’s not what bite analysis means you stupid cunt. Bite analysis is attempting to match a bite mark to an individual person’s teeth to prove they delivered the bite. IOW “matching” a dental case of a suspect to the bite mark on a victim. It’s not looking at a bite mark on a person’s body and saying “Yep, that’s a human bite mark”. The former is bunk. The latter is the most basic, rudimentary observation imaginable, and if you are a pathologist who can’t make that determination you should consider getting a refund on your education.

The standard in criminal court is “reasonable doubt”. “This small child with wounds and bruises all over her body was a 1 in 50,000 case with a debilitating medical disorder for which the parents never sought treatment and not an abuse victim” could only raise doubt in the sort of clinical retard that we keep out of jury pools.

[Bruce D]

It’s still discredited, you stupid cunt.

[Frank Drackman]

You Stupid Cunt…..would you say that to Mike Tyson?

[Vampire Easter Bunnies in Space]

Why would he? Tyson isn’t a stupid cunt.

[Frank Drackman]

Dammit, that cop in Minneapolis should have just bitten Floyd George and thrown him down the stairs.

[ravenshrike]

How did they explain the hair?

[Zeb]

That’s certainly something that should be mentioned. But there is a lot of reason not to simply trust supposed forensic experts and doctors on these things. There is a lot of history of really bad theories about what can only possibly be caused by child abuse, and a lot of people have been falsely convicted on such testimony of “experts”.
After the last two years, I would hope people would have a healthy skepticism of all kinds of supposed medical experts.

[Austin Kiehm]

Comparing pathology to public health administration is just retarded. “Don’t believe your oncologist when he says your CT scan shows a malignant tumor because Dr. Fauci lied about the COVID vaccine”. Come on man.

[Zeb]

This is not remotely like trusting your own physician with whom you have a voluntary and presumably trusting relationship.

[Brett Bellmore]

I have to say that I didn’t exactly volunteer to have a relationship with my oncologist.

[Mother's Lament]

^ This.

We’ve seen for too many forensic experts get caught lying about evidence.

If the evidence Salted Nuts mentioned is true, the mother by all rights should be excecuted by the most exquisite Byzantine tortures. Unfortunately the North American criminal justice system is so incredibly corrupt we can’t rely on it not to execute the innocent.
Better a monster sits in jail than an innocent person dies.

That said, shame on Reason for again misrepresenting the situation and withholding facts.

[Salted Nuts]

It was the evidence presented by multiple medical professionals who independently examined the child’s body and submitted to the court. I just looked up the case on a habitual feeling that Reason left things out.

[freedomwriter]

So not only is REason pathetic, but the Texas judge is also?

The justice, sorry I mean “justice,” system is as corrupt as any system on this planet. YOU might be as well by ignoring the reason the court stayed her execution….pathetic rag

[markm23]

The chief forensic pathologist for Cameron and Hidalgo Counties basically worked for the prosecutor – who was a criminal. The defense attorney didn’t challenge his testimony, nor other questionable aspects of the case, but that doesn’t prove much than that the defense was lazy – or worse, considering that he next took a job with the prosecutor…

[Salted Nuts]

ER physician who recieved the child’s body testified to the same – worst case of child abuse they had ever seen.

Either the prosecution is somehow staging an elaborate framing to convict this poor lady for some unknown purpose, or the multiple professionals who say this was a crime are right. Whichever sounds more reasonable to you.

[Salted Nuts]

I couldn’t believe they brought this back. And still not a mention of the child’s clearly-not-stairs injuries.

[Granite]

Bullshit. I call bullshit on that pathologist. Clearly he’s never even seen a child raised in religion then before. Worst case in 30 years my ass.

Although what mommy and those stairs did caused permanent damage, so too do the effects of religions like say, Mormonism. In this country, fatalities are bad, I concede, but crippling someone for life, in most cases, is considered worse.

If anything, mariah should be considered lucky to have not had to experience the disadvantage of being raised Mormon – at least she didn’t suffer for long.

There are no vigils for the living. Indeed, the contusions, missing hair, broken limbs, and roundhouse kicks to the head area don’t hold a candle to the lifetime of debilitating effects of cult indoctrination.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

The state claimed she beat a 2-year-old to death. But evidence may show it was the result of a fall down stairs.

Umm… kayyy… why does this smell like a fanciful defense-attorney theory? For those few of us non-millennials with enough remaining testosterone to have actually fathered a child, two year olds are remarkably tough and resilient. Flexible, even. A fall down a stairs, while potentially serious, probably won’t result in a body that appears to have been beaten to death.

[mad.casual]

Do yourself a favor and don’t read the full court documents. Seriously, the defense’s story goes the girl fell on the 15th and the paramedics weren’t called until the 17th. Imagine a house full of kids where falling down the stairs and dying is the good outcome.

[Austin Kiehm]

Someone should have told her the time to use the “I tripped and fell” defense is BEFORE the birth not after.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

I OBJECT, YOUR HONOR!

ON what Grounds?

On the grounds that this testimony is DEVASTATING to my case!

[Granite]

The majority of my jokes come from that movie. Literally, the funniest movie I’ve ever watched – even to this day. Better than even Airplane.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Is it possible this child fell up the stairs landing only on his face?

Well, I suppose it’s possible but…

THANK you! Your Honor, no further questions!

[Dillinger]

>>the state suppressed favorable evidence

if there’s a witness there’s a witness. no state should have the power to execute.

[BestUsedCarSales]

The important thing is the child is dead and we don’t really have to think about her anymore.

[Austin Kiehm]

evidence may show it was the result of a fall down stairs.

Yeah and I may fuck Gal Gadot.

[Vampire Easter Bunnies in Space]

I may also fuck Gal Gadot. We may spitroast her?

[BestUsedCarSales]

I really don’t like these “gum up the system until it’s unfunctional to stop things I disagree with” method. I think this has pretty serious downstream effects, including on other people in the criminal justice system. It’s a pranksterism model of reform.
I say this as someone who is comfortable saying I am against the death penalty pretty much entirely.

[BestUsedCarSales]

That said, this was from the article linked at the end:

Following a lengthy and intense interrogation, which involved Lucio being forced to spank a doll harder and harder at the interrogator’s urging (“I wouldn’t pound on her,” Lucio protested), Lucio still maintained her innocence. But finally, she admitted, “I don’t know what you want me to say…I guess I did it. I guess I did it.”

At her trial in Cameron County, she was defended by Peter Gilman, who neglected to explain a few things, including that Lucio had confessed under duress and that sometimes people give false confessions. In fact, one out of every four cases of wrongful convictions overturned by the Innocence Project has involved a false confession.

I’m basically open to freeing her based entirely on that. Prosecutors can’t be doing these things, and even if the rest of the case was air tight the system needs police abuses such as these rigorously.

[freedomwriter]

INDEED!

[Nardz]

Except she beat her child to death, no matter how much you wish the system was the only bad guy here

[Bruce D]

How do you know that? You automatically assume that regardless of evidence.

[Salted Nuts]

Check the court documents for testimony from multiple medical professionals who viewed the child’s body. It’s linked above. It was linked at the last hack job they made of this too.

[ravenshrike]

Someone beat the kid to death. IIRC there was a theory going around that she was protecting one of her other kids.

[Zeb]

Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a real confession.

Where the fuck was her lawyer? I think a good reform would be to require police to repeatedly remind those being interrogated that they don’t have to say anything and have the right to an attorney.

[SRG]

A Texas court allowing the appeal is pretty much as close as Texas ever gets to conceding actual innocence.

[Longtobefree]

State experts: Only a beating could cause these injuries.
Defense expert (presumably later?): Well, something else could cause those injuries.
Judge: Heads or tails?

[TWW]

Ms. Lucio was thirty-eight when her daughter died; a mother of fourteen children, a drug addict, and an alcohol abuser.

Her daughter’s death was either intentional or a case of gross negligence.

[Azathoth!!]

In a few months someone in the comments will mention the execution.

The courts and the jury will be presented with the same mountain of evidence given at the initial trial –including the evidence of healed prior injuries and decide the same way the first jury did.

Reason will only mention this again if everything goes their way.

[Frank Drackman]

Let her out already, her demographic influence might delay Amurica becoming May-He-Co’s 33rd State…

[Winston in Wonderland]

We need to execute more women! According to the Execution Gap Calendar that I just invented, “Equal Execution Day” will be December 27th!

[BlackCat13th]

Just commute it to a 20year sentence maybe. “Fall down the stairs” sounds like bs. 20years for a 2yo. Still pretty stiff.

But for real, may have been a railroad court victim. Quite a few, especially when they assume they’ll be convicted anyway. Does sound like her lawyer rolled over on her or that she rolled over on her lawyer. Hard to say which.