SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Melissa Lucio is pictured with one of her children in this undated photo. (Photo: Melissa Lucio legal team/NPR)
Execution Halted, Melissa Lucio's Legal Team Vows to 'Continue Fighting'
"It would have shocked the public's conscience for Melissa to be put to death based on false and incomplete medical evidence for a crime that never even happened," said one of Lucio's lawyers.
Apr 25, 2022
Lawyers representing Melissa Lucio vowed to "continue fighting" to prove her innocence after a Texas appeals court on Monday granted the mother of 14--who advocates say was wrongfully convicted of murdering her two-year-old daughter in 2007--a stay of execution, two days before she was scheduled to be killed by lethal injection.
"All of the new evidence of her innocence has never before been considered by any court."
The Innocence Project reports that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sent Lucio's case back to the Cameron County court where she was originally tried amid concerns that she did not killer her daughter, Mariah Alvarez, and that prosecutors presented false testimony at her trial and hid evidence from the defense.
Supporters have also cited Lucio's coerced confession--upon which the prosecution relied almost entirely--as grounds for a new trial.
"I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence," Lucio said in a statement following her reprieve. "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."
Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and one of Lucio's lawyers, said that the appellate court "did the right thing by stopping Melissa's execution."
"Medical evidence shows that Mariah's death was consistent with an accident. But for the state's use of false testimony, no juror would have voted to convict Melissa of capital murder because no murder occurred," she continued. "It would have shocked the public's conscience for Melissa to be put to death based on false and incomplete medical evidence for a crime that never even happened."
"All of the new evidence of her innocence has never before been considered by any court," Potkin added. "The court's stay allows us to continue fighting alongside Melissa to overturn her wrongful conviction."
According to The Texas Tribune:
Questions over Mariah Alvarez's death and Lucio's role in it have lingered since the now 53-year-old mother was sentenced to death in 2008. In recent months, concerns about Lucio's possible innocence--greatest among them whether Mariah's fatal head trauma was caused by abuse or an accidental fall down the stairs--have only been amplified.
More than two-thirds of the Texas Senate and a majority of the Texas House of Representatives pleaded for the parole board and governor to halt Lucio's execution. The lawmakers have been joined by an ever-growing list of people, including at least five of Lucio's former jurors.
Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach, a death penalty supporter, on Monday described the case as "the most troubling I've ever seen, possibly the most troubling in the history of our state."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Lawyers representing Melissa Lucio vowed to "continue fighting" to prove her innocence after a Texas appeals court on Monday granted the mother of 14--who advocates say was wrongfully convicted of murdering her two-year-old daughter in 2007--a stay of execution, two days before she was scheduled to be killed by lethal injection.
"All of the new evidence of her innocence has never before been considered by any court."
The Innocence Project reports that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sent Lucio's case back to the Cameron County court where she was originally tried amid concerns that she did not killer her daughter, Mariah Alvarez, and that prosecutors presented false testimony at her trial and hid evidence from the defense.
Supporters have also cited Lucio's coerced confession--upon which the prosecution relied almost entirely--as grounds for a new trial.
"I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence," Lucio said in a statement following her reprieve. "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."
Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and one of Lucio's lawyers, said that the appellate court "did the right thing by stopping Melissa's execution."
"Medical evidence shows that Mariah's death was consistent with an accident. But for the state's use of false testimony, no juror would have voted to convict Melissa of capital murder because no murder occurred," she continued. "It would have shocked the public's conscience for Melissa to be put to death based on false and incomplete medical evidence for a crime that never even happened."
"All of the new evidence of her innocence has never before been considered by any court," Potkin added. "The court's stay allows us to continue fighting alongside Melissa to overturn her wrongful conviction."
According to The Texas Tribune:
Questions over Mariah Alvarez's death and Lucio's role in it have lingered since the now 53-year-old mother was sentenced to death in 2008. In recent months, concerns about Lucio's possible innocence--greatest among them whether Mariah's fatal head trauma was caused by abuse or an accidental fall down the stairs--have only been amplified.
More than two-thirds of the Texas Senate and a majority of the Texas House of Representatives pleaded for the parole board and governor to halt Lucio's execution. The lawmakers have been joined by an ever-growing list of people, including at least five of Lucio's former jurors.
Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach, a death penalty supporter, on Monday described the case as "the most troubling I've ever seen, possibly the most troubling in the history of our state."
Lawyers representing Melissa Lucio vowed to "continue fighting" to prove her innocence after a Texas appeals court on Monday granted the mother of 14--who advocates say was wrongfully convicted of murdering her two-year-old daughter in 2007--a stay of execution, two days before she was scheduled to be killed by lethal injection.
"All of the new evidence of her innocence has never before been considered by any court."
The Innocence Project reports that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sent Lucio's case back to the Cameron County court where she was originally tried amid concerns that she did not killer her daughter, Mariah Alvarez, and that prosecutors presented false testimony at her trial and hid evidence from the defense.
Supporters have also cited Lucio's coerced confession--upon which the prosecution relied almost entirely--as grounds for a new trial.
"I am grateful the court has given me the chance to live and prove my innocence," Lucio said in a statement following her reprieve. "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."
Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and one of Lucio's lawyers, said that the appellate court "did the right thing by stopping Melissa's execution."
"Medical evidence shows that Mariah's death was consistent with an accident. But for the state's use of false testimony, no juror would have voted to convict Melissa of capital murder because no murder occurred," she continued. "It would have shocked the public's conscience for Melissa to be put to death based on false and incomplete medical evidence for a crime that never even happened."
"All of the new evidence of her innocence has never before been considered by any court," Potkin added. "The court's stay allows us to continue fighting alongside Melissa to overturn her wrongful conviction."
According to The Texas Tribune:
Questions over Mariah Alvarez's death and Lucio's role in it have lingered since the now 53-year-old mother was sentenced to death in 2008. In recent months, concerns about Lucio's possible innocence--greatest among them whether Mariah's fatal head trauma was caused by abuse or an accidental fall down the stairs--have only been amplified.
More than two-thirds of the Texas Senate and a majority of the Texas House of Representatives pleaded for the parole board and governor to halt Lucio's execution. The lawmakers have been joined by an ever-growing list of people, including at least five of Lucio's former jurors.
Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach, a death penalty supporter, on Monday described the case as "the most troubling I've ever seen, possibly the most troubling in the history of our state."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.