Melissa Lucio, an American mother sentenced to death for the murder of her daughter after a controversial trial, saw her execution suspended Monday by an appeals court in Texas, two days before the due date.
Another Texas court will have to consider the motions of its attorneys, according to court documents.
His defense specifically claims that the new scientific evidence justifies his client, and the false testimony led to his conviction. Her lawyers said the death of Melissa Lucio’s daughter, Mariah, was an accident, not murder.
I thank God for my life, said Melissa Lucio, who has been claiming her innocence for 15 years. He said to himself grateful to the court for giving me a chance to live and prove my innocence at to have many days to be a mother to my children and a grandmother to my grandchildren.
Calls for mercy from personalities like Kim Kardashian have multiplied in favor of this mother of 14 children of Hispanic descent, and interest in her case has even crossed American borders.
Many local Republican officials, who have traditionally preferred to defend the death penalty, asked for his pardon, and one of the jurors at his trial declared his deep regret to sentence him to death.
In 2007, her 2-year-old daughter Mariah was found dead in her home, covered in bruises, a few days after falling down the stairs. Melissa Lucio, whose life was marked by both physical and sexual assault, drug addiction and dangerous conditions, was immediately suspected of assaulting her.
confession extorted
After a long interrogation, the mother of the family confessed completely extortedaccording to Sabrina Van Tassel, director of the hit documentary The State of Texas Vs. Melissa (2020 in the United States) and support from American.
I guess I didreplied Melissa Lucio, asked about the presence of hematomas, to investigators.
After a controversial trial, he was sentenced to death. But the girl’s disabilities, which are likely to explain her fall, were not taken into account by experts, according to her defense, making sure the bruises could be caused by a circulatory disease. None of the Texan children accused him of being violent.
As for the prosecutor, he was later sentenced to prison for bribery and extortion, in a case unrelated to Melissa Lucio’s case.
Melissa is entitled to a new fair trialhired Tivon Schardl, one of his lawyers.
Christiane Taubira, former French Minister of Justice and former presidential candidate of 2022, immediately welcomed the decision on Monday on Twitter: The execution of Melissa Lucio in Texas will not take place. How to write it without drowning in tears. Ng anguish at me. A new test. Justice.
It was a historic injustice for him to be killed for a crime he never committed, a crime that, in fact, never happened.commented AFP Burke Butler, director of the Texas Defender Service association.
It is rare for women to be killed in the United States. Only 17 have been since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Texas is both the state with the most executions and the one that has committed the largest number of convicted women, with six executions.
Melissa Lucio is reportedly the first Hispanic woman killed in that state.
The example of mobilization in Texas, the United States and the world in favor of Melissa Lucio should serve to reflect the death penalty in general, for all the unsaved.reaction of Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of the French association Together against the death penalty.
Source: Radio-Canada
