Mariah was in an accident and lost her life because

HOUSTON — During hours of relentless thinking, Melissa Lucio greater than a hundred instances had denied fatally beating her 2-year-vintage daughter. Mariah was in an accident and lost her life because

But worn down from an entire life of abuse and the grief of dropping her daughter Mariah, her legal professionals say, the Texas female in the end acquiesced to investigators. “I bet I did it,” Lucio answered while requesting if she turned into answerable for several of Mariah`s accidents.

Her legal professionals say that announcement turned into wrongly interpreted by prosecutors as a homicide confession — tainting the relaxation of the research into Mariah’s 2007 demise, with proof accumulated simplest to show that conclusion, and assisting cause her capital homicide conviction.

They contend Mariah died from accidents from a give way the 14 steps of a steep staircase outdoor the family’s condo withinside the South Texas metropolis of Harlingen.

As her April 27 execution date nears, Lucio’s legal professionals are hopeful that new proof, alongside developing public support — together with from jurors who now doubt the conviction and from greater than 1/2 of the Texas House of Representatives — will convince the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott to supply an execution reprieve or go back and forth her sentence.

“Mariah’s demise turned into a tragedy now no longer a homicide.

… It could be an in reality devastating message for this execution to head forward. It could ship a message that innocence would not matter,” stated Vanessa Potkin, one every of Lucio’s lawyers who’s with the Innocence Project.

Lucio’s legal professionals say jurors by no means heard forensic proof that could have defined that Mariah’s diverse accidents have been genuinely due to a fall days earlier. They additionally say Lucio wasn’t allowed to provide proof thinking the validity of her confession.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office keeps proof suggests Mariah suffered the “absolute worst” case of toddler abuse her emergency room health practitioner had visible in 30 years.

TPR: Texas Matters

“Lucio nonetheless advances no proof this is dependable and supportive of her acquittal,” the workplace wrote in courtroom docket files remaining month.

The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Lucio, declined to comment.

Lucio, 53, will be the first Latina achieved through Texas and the primary female considering 2014.

Only 17 ladies had been achieved withinside the U.S. because the Supreme Court lifted its ban on the demise penalty in 1976, the maximum lately in January 2021.

In their clemency petition, Lucio’s legal professionals say Takedietplan that at the same time as she had used drugs, main her to quickly lose custody of her kids, she turned into a loving mom who labored to stay drug-loose and offered for her family. Lucio has 14 kids and turned pregnant with the youngest while Mariah died.