As of today, there are 26 days in order to stop Melissa Lucio’s execution. She has been on death row for 14 years and has been scheduled to be executed on April 27th, 2022 in Texas for a crime that never occurred. A motion to withdraw or modify the execution date was filed by Melissa’s attorneys on February 8th. A petition for clemency was also filed on March 22nd to the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole.
Facts of the case
Melissa Lucio was convicted for the murder of her 2-year old daughter in 2008. On February 15th, 2007, her daughter had an accidental fall down the stairs. She passed away two days later from a nap she did not wake up from. Melissa Lucio was taken into police custody and it was believed that she murdered her daughter due to finding bite marks, bruises, and scratches on her body. Authorities made an assumption that Melissa abused her 2-year old daughter and therefore, led to her death. What authorities failed to take into consideration is that Melissa’s daughter had a physical disability, which affected her walking and caused her to trip more often. To add on, an investigation was not conducted of how the toddler got the injuries.
Coercion
Coercion by police officers during interrogation often leads to false confessions and this is what happened to Melissa. Not to mention, false confessions are a leading case of wrongful convictions. There is no physical evidence that a crime was committed other than her confession. While still mourning the death of her daughter, Melissa was interrogated two hours after her death. She was pressured aggressively and manipulated by officers, but continued to say she did not hurt her daughter. After five hours of interrogation, Melissa states, “I guess I did it.”
They applied coercive maximization and minimization interrogation techniques that are notorious for their tendency to produce false confessions. Maximization in this context is when officers exaggerate the strength of the evidence and the magnitude of the charges. On the contrary, minimization is when officers mitigate the crime. Both are legal and fall under the infamous Reid model that officers use in interrogations; however, minimization is one that is often criticized because of its tendency to imply leniency towards a crime. Consequently, minimization techniques increase the likelihood of coerced confessions.
What makes confessions admissible in court is that they have to be voluntary. In Bram v. United States (1987), the Supreme Court ruled that in order to be admissible, confessions must not be extracted by any sort of threats or violence, nor obtained by any direct or implied promises, however slight, nor by the exertion of any improper influence. Although this is true, there lies ambiguity from what constitutes as an impermissible confession as police officers use a variety of tactics that can help them prove a confession was not coerced. Equally important, the Supreme Court has allowed for inconsistency with what is an admissible confession, which for example, is shown in People v. Pugh (1978) and in United States v. Mashburn (2005). Given this information, it reveals how Melissa’s confession should not have been admissible.
What we can do
Moreover, the death of Melissa’s daughter was an accident and not a murder. Melissa Lucio is a mother of 14 children and was pregnant with twins at the time of the incident. Additionally, she gave birth to twins while she was incarcerated and had to place them up for adoption. Her other children were split up between the state and family members. Time is running out for her and if she is not granted, she will be the first Hispanic woman in Texas to be executed. The following is what you can do to help her:
Sign Melissa’s petition here
Share her story throughout social media platforms
If you live in Texas, call D.A. Saenz and urge him to withdraw the execution date: 956-300-3881
If you live in Texas, contact Gov. Abbott and ask him to grant Melissa clemency: 956-446-2866
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group Blog. If you are in need of legal help, the CIMA Law Group is a law firm in Phoenix, Arizona which possesses expertise in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
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