THE CONTROVERSIAL CASE OF MELISSA LUCIO

Melissa Lucio, who in 2008 became the first Latina sentenced to death in Texas for the death of her
2-year-old daughter, in an irregular process according to her current lawyer.
On February 17, 2007, Mariah's father called emergency services because his two-year-old daughter
was not breathing, but when they attended to her, the girl had sadly already died. and the jury
determined that Melissa had "beat and tortured" her daughter.
However, after Melissa had spent 14 years in prison, her lawyers managed to get the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals to stay her execution and order that new evidence be considered regarding her
possible innocence.
The defense maintains that a new review of the evidentiary material in the case shows that Melissa
is innocent and that she was forced to confess under duress.
Moments after learning of her daughter's death, Melissa Lucio was interrogated by five police
officers for more than five hours, without allowing her to eat, drink or sleep: "They mocked her,
scolded her and yelled at her until she finally agreed to their demands and the insistence that he was
guilty of harming his daughter.
"There should have been a free, exhaustive investigation and that is not what happened," said the
lawyer. And despite pressure from the agents, during the interrogation Melissa denied having
murdered her daughter on more than 80 different occasions, but the prosecutors' case was based on
the woman's confession after harsh interrogation, the testimony of one of officers, who said he was
"sure" she was guilty, and about the injuries on Mariah's body at the time of her death.
What Melissa's defense has done during the appeal process has been to subject the evidence in the
case, which according to lawyer Babcock was not taken into account during the initial trial, to a
new review by an interdisciplinary group of recognized experts.
"Dr. Farley did not take into account Mariah's prior medical history, which included difficulty
walking and documented falls (caused by a disorder). During the trial, clinical psychologist John
Pinkerman was not called to testify, as he reviewed the videos of more than five hours of the
woman's interrogation and concluded at that time that Melissa's psychological characteristics made
her prone to accepting blame due to the stress of the situation.
Now after knowing the suspension of the execution, Melissa's defense made public a message from
her thanking God and hoping that her innocence will be proven, and she will be released.

This information is obtained from https://www.bbc.com