JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED ..... SHE CONFESSED TO BEATING THE CHILD TO DEATH BUT IS CLAIMING THE COPS FORCED HER TO CONFESS

Texas death row mom Melissa Lucio lands last-minute reprieve 

 

By MaryAnn Martinez

 

New York Post

April 25, 2022

 

 

Melissa Lucio’s family members do not believe she killed her child on purpose  

 

Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio landed an 11th-hour stay of execution from a state appellate court Monday, her lawyers said.

Lucio — an accused child-killer whose case has garnered national attention and bi-partisan support from Texas lawmakers for another look — dodged being put to death April 27 thanks to the ruling by a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that kicked her conviction back for further review, according to her lawyers at the Innocence Project.

The 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron Country — where the mother of 14 was convicted in the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah — will now consider reported new evidence in the case, her camp said.

“I thank God for my life. I have always trusted in Him,” Lucio said in a statement. “I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence. Mariah is in my heart today and always. I am grateful to have more days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren.”

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was also supposed to separately meet to consider a clemency request for Lucio. But given the appeals-court ruling, the Board of Pardons and Paroles decided not to vote on her clemency request at the moment, officials said.

 

Prosecutors say Lucio fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter, but the mother denies it

Lucio’s lawyers, at her new court hearing, are expected to present what they say is evidence that her confession was coerced.

Mariah’s official cause of death was blunt force trauma. Lucio claims the girl fell down the stairs and died as a result of complications from those injuries over two days in which she did not seek medical care for her toddler.

Lucio was questioned by cops after investigators discovered a bite mark along with scratches and bruises on the girl’s body.

 

                                      The mother of Melissa Lucio, pleas to the public on the steps of the Cameron County Courthouse

 Rep. Jeff Leach stands next to death row inmate Lucio during a visit by a group of seven lawmakers to the Mountain View Unit in Gatesville, Texas 

 
Lucio’s supporters wait in the Governor’s Public Reception Room at the Capitol, in Austin, Texas, on Monday Apr. 25, 2022

 

During a police interrogation, Lucio admitted to biting and spanking Mariah. Cameron County prosecutors used that statement to secure a conviction even though the mom insisted the death was an accident.

“We can sit here and debate whether Ms. Lucio should have taken [Mariah] to the hospital sooner when she started to decline in health, but she was not abused,” one of Lucio’s lawyers, Vanessa Potkin, told The Post last week.