melissa lucio daughter mariah alvarez autopsy

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. [11][12] A pathologist, Dr. Norma J. Farley, testified that the childs autopsy indicated that she did not die from falling down stairs, and instead her injuries were consistent with a death from blunt force trauma. Prosecutors, however, painted a different picture. The only person who abused my sister was my mother, Melissa Lucio, she claims in another video. }); The content produced by YourTango is for informational and educational purposes only. However, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon who reviewed the evidence concluded that the medical examiners testimony was misleading and there is nothing about Mariahs fracture that indicates that, was the result of an intentional act or abuse. Melissa Elizabeth Lucio, Texas. Details about what allegedly happened in the interrogation room were also outlined in the clemency petition. She is . I dont want her to be executed, she says. [22], In April 2022, a juror on the trial, Johnny Galvan Jr., wrote in the Houston Chronicle that he had wrongly succumbed to peer pressure during deliberations and had changed his vote from a life sentence to the death penalty. On February 17, 2007, paramedics were called to the Lucio residence because two-year-old Mariah was unresponsive and not breathing. It was later discovered that Mariahs arm had been broken two to seven weeks prior to her passing away. Read and share these key facts before Texas makes the irreversible mistake of killing an innocent woman. Attempts to reach Crain were unsuccessful. They contend Mariah died from injuries from a fall down the 14 steps of a steep staircase outside the family's apartment in the South Texas city of Harlingen. Please avoid sharing any personal information in the comments below and join us in making this a hate-speech free and safe space for everyone. Call Gov. Lucio received the death penalty for the death of Mariah. [14], Forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Young, the former chief medical examiner in Kansas City, Missouri, reviewed the case at the request of Lucio's post-conviction attorney. Mariah Alvarez, daughter of Melissa Lucio, was a young little girl who lost her life at a very young age. A mitigation specialist at trial named Norma Villanueva claims that Alexandra admitted during a family meeting in June 2008 that she was the reason Mariah fell down the stairs.. While she was in prison she gave birth to twins which made a total of four children. According to the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, Mariah was found at the home with signs of abuse on her body. Ms. Lucio endured abuse throughout her childhood and into her teenage years. Mariah was the twelfth child of Lucio. Lucio is seeking clemency as her April 27 execution date approaches. Alexander Molony Parents: Who Are Alexander Molony Parents? Grants Clemency To Julius Jones Hours Before Scheduled Execution Amid Public Pressure. At 6 years old, she was sexually assaulted by one of her mother's partners, her legal team said in the clemency petition. On April 15, Ms. Lucios attorneys filed a habeas petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeking a stay of her execution and arguing that she deserves a new trial because she is innocent and the State relied on false evidence,and hid favorable evidence, to convict her. "When I walked in, she was not making eye contact with the investigator. Based out of Brooklyn, New York, her work covers all things social justice, pop culture, and human interest. My mother was never the abusing woman -- the monster that the district attorney Armando Villalobos, former district attorney, made it seem like," John Lucio said. They say he didnt take his daughter to the doctor when she needed it. In their clemency petition, Lucio's lawyers say that while she had used drugs, leading her to temporarily lose custody of her children, she was a loving mother who worked to remain drug-free and provide for her family. Isla Bryson Husband: Is Isla Bryson Married? Lucio regained custody of the other kids in late 2006 after three older kids moved in with their father in Houston. A woman facing execution in Texas for killing her daughter is seeking clemency, claiming she was coerced into confessing to the crime. Abbott can grant a one-time, 30-day reprieve. Melissa Lucio was sentenced to death in Texas after she confessed to beating her 2-year-old daughter, who later died. On April 12, attorneys for Melissa filed a supplemental clemency application including a new declaration from a fifth juror Melissas jury foreperson who joins the calls of four other jurors and the alternate to halt Melissas pending execution or grant her a new trial where new evidence of her innocence can be considered. Lucio then had seven children with Robert Alvarez. April 7, 2022, 9:13 AM, CDT Fourteen years ago, Melissa Lucio was sentenced to death for killing the youngest of her 12 children, Mariah, in Harlingen. The Cameron County District Attorneys Office reports that Mariah was discovered at the residence with physical evidence of abuse. Mariah fell down a flight of stairs while the family was moving homes on Feb. 15, 2007. In 2008 a Cameron County jury found Lucio guilty on one count of capital murder for causing the death of her daughter, Mariah Alvarez. It stated that Lucio, who was pregnant with twins, was questioned by two armed detectives for more than five hours. Instead of taking the steps to learn about Mariahs health history and investigating the causes of her injuries, authorities immediately jumped to the conclusion that she had been murdered and, through a coercive interrogation, pressured Ms. Lucio to make a false statement. In a previous investigation into Lucio for alleged child neglect, Child Protective Services found that his youngest kids were frequently left in the care of their older, teenage siblings. 11 Strict Rules That Elon Musk Makes His Girlfriends & Wives Follow, Justin Bieber Suspected As The Father Of Kourtney Kardashian's Son Reign (Instead Of Scott Disick), Why Kate Moss Was 'Scared' & 'Couldn't Get Out Of Bed For Weeks' After Working With Mark Wahlberg. During the interrogation, officers berated and intimidated Ms. Lucio, who was pregnant and in shock from the loss of her child, for five hours. If we had heard passionately from the defense defending her in some way, we might have reached a different decision," juror Johnny Galvan wrote in an affidavit. Thank you for visiting us. The hourslong interrogation ended with Lucio being coerced into confessing, her legal team has said, arguing that her past experiences with physical abuse and sexual assault made her susceptible to taking responsibility for her daughter's death even though, they said, she was innocent. In 2008, Melissa Lucio was sentenced to death in Texas for the murder of her 2-year old daughter Mariah, who died two days after a tragic fall down a flight of stairs. "The Innocence Project recognized the urgency that an innocent woman was headed for execution," Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation for the organization, told ABC News. She also spoke in one of her sisters TikToks and claimed that blame was placed on her in an attempt to free Lucio. Lawyers for Lucio deny those claims and say the bruising was a result of the fall. Lucio was found guilty of abusing and killing her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, in 2007. Selina, the fifth of Lucios 14 children, initially came forward on TikTok back in 2021 after the release of The State Of Texas vs. Melissa, a documentary on Hulu that covers the case and Lucios fight to have her conviction overturned. [6][failed verification] According to Lucio, Mariah had sustained the injuries when she fell down a flight of stairs two days earlier. She is scheduled to be executed by. Trauma victims who dissociate may not fully grasp the severity of the situation they are in so "they're not going to be able to track and pay attention as carefully and this can make you potentially prone to accepting suggestions from officers," Guarnera said. Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP. Calls are growing for Texas to stop the approaching execution of Melissa Lucio, who says she was wrongfully convicted of killing her toddler Mariah in 2007. Mariah was crying but did not appear to have any serious injuries, Lucio said. Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. It was later determined that Mariah's arm had been broken two to seven weeks before her death, and an autopsy also showed a head injury and bruising of the kidneys, lungs and spinal cord. Unable to be resuscitated, her daughter was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Mechanic agreed, describing dissociation as a coping mechanism. "You can see this in Melissa Lucio's case. Selinas claims contradict the evidence presented in the case. "You're not making this firm division between a victim and suspect because a lot of times you don't know at the beginning who's a victim and who's a suspect.". Her supporters say she was . The local hospital said the child had passed away. In the similar case of Manuel Velez, a man who was initially convicted for murdering a one-year-old baby and whose death sentence was overturned after further investigation, Farley's conclusions had also been contradicted by other medical experts. Ahead of the election, Mr. Villalobos sought to make an example in Ms. Lucios case, which helped him appear tough on crime. Today, the former district attorney is serving a 13-year federal prison sentence for bribery and extortion. A psychologist who reviewed recent testing of Melissa said that Melissa has highly abnormal levels of vulnerability to police coercion because of her background. Five of Lucios children were not living with her at the time of Mariah's death. According to Bonowitz, factors like ableism and racial and socioeconomic bias in the criminal justice system pose too much of a threat to warrant the use of the death penalty. I was wrong", "I am sending a letter to Governor @GregAbbot_Tx", "Texas death row prisoner Melissa Lucio granted stay of execution", "Hulu Acquires U.S. Rights to Tribeca Documentary, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melissa_Lucio&oldid=1139933110, Articles with failed verification from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 17 February 2023, at 16:02. Lucio, born in Lubbock, Texas, endured years of abuse and violence, according to her attorneys. "I don't want to be in that room on April 27 to see her get executed," Michelle Lucio said. The death penalty is wrong. They also say Lucio wasn't allowed to present evidence questioning the validity of her confession. Melissa Lucio was born in Lubbock Texas on June 18 1969 as stated in court documents. The brief states that Lucio's subdued behavior and acquiescence during interrogation were the result of prior trauma as a survivor of abuse. Detectives rushed to judgment and, just two hours after Mariah died, took Ms. Lucio in for questioning. According to The Marshall Project, Crain, who maintains her innocence, wrote that she had flashbacks to her abusive husband when she was being yelled at by a detective. "She was a good mother. Texas lawmakers push for clemency or reprieve for Melissa Lucio, woman on death row accused of killing her child . Potkin said Lucio's presumed guilt "was a complete rush to judgment" spurred on by misunderstanding, a "highly manipulative and coercive" interrogation and faulty forensics. Prosecutors said that Mariah's injuries were the result of physical abuse, while Lucio's attorneys say that her death was caused by a fall down the stairs two days prior. The Innocence Project is affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. Without that context, the jury was undoubtedly swayed by Ms. Lucios statement and the Texas Rangers testimony about her demeanor during the interrogation. The application also states that the state medical examiner who performed Mariah's autopsy was told that Lucio admitted to abusing the girl and was accompanied by two of the interrogating officers during the autopsy. Melissa Lucio holds her daughter Mariah. The omission of this crucial evidence was particularly damaging because the prosecution had a weak case for capital murder, and an even weaker case for a death sentence. Abbott's office, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles did not immediately respond to ABC News' requests for comment. Many people accept that Lucio's case is a reasonable case of treason, while others accept that she deserved the sanctions. "We've had her interrogation reviewed by leading experts in interrogation and false confessions. window.addEventListener('scroll', function() { 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. In this undated photograph, Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio is holding her daughter Mariah. But worn down from a lifetime of abuse and the grief of losing her daughter Mariah, her lawyers say, the Texas woman finally acquiesced to investigators. Officers used powerfully manipulative techniques many of which rise to the level of risk factors for false confession to coerce Ms. Lucio to incriminate herself. Thousands of pages of Child Protective Services records show that Ms. Lucios 12 children never said she was violent with them and no case workers noted signs of abuse. "We promised #MelissaLucio and her family we'd do everything we can do to prevent this irreversible injustice from taking place later this month,"Leach wrote Thursday on Twitter. Convicted of murdering one of her 9 children, her 2 year old daughter, Mariah Alvarez. Alexander Molony Girlfriend: Who Is Alexander Molony Girlfriend? Melissa Lucio and Robert Alvarez became parents to Mariah in September 2004. The interrogating officers refused to hear the truth: that Melissa did not, and would not, ever hurt her children. She says she was coerced to confess by a Texas Ranger during her interrogation. Her husband and Mariah's father, Robert Alvarez, was sentenced to four years in prison for child endangerment. In the 2020 documentary "The State of Texas vs. Melissa," Lucio said investigators kept pushing her to say she had hurt Mariah. Lucio has 14 children and was pregnant with the youngest two when Mariah died. Mariah was Lucio's twelfth child. He is now serving a 13-year federal prison sentence for bribery and extortion. Lucio claims that starting when she was seven years old, her mothers boyfriend sexually abused her for approximately two years. Nearly 1 in 3 exonerated women were wrongly convicted of harming children or other loved ones in their care and over 70% were wrongly convicted of crimes that never took place at all events that were accidents, deaths by suicide, or fabricated according to data from the National Registry of Exonerations. New evidence suggests the death may have been an accident - and today, the Texas Board of Pardons . } He then told Lucio that he would "help" her if she told him what he already knew. However, pathologists who have reviewed the evidence have concluded that this testimony was false. So you respond to threats, you respond to violence, you respond to demands, you respond to the escalating voice by saying, 'Yes, yes, I'll do it,'" said Mindy Mechanic, a forensic psychologist and professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton. Lucio and her children struggled through poverty. "My mother is an innocent woman. In shock and grieving the loss of her baby the youngest of her 12 children at the time Ms. Lucio was taken into police custody and immediately blamed for her daughters death. You know? After the death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah, who had injuries to her head, contusions of the kidneys, lungs, and spinal cord, as well as scattered bruises that were in various stages of healing, she was found guilty of capital murder. Ms. Lucio, who was given the death penalty, is filing an appeal. Keep up with her Twitter for more. Eighty-three Texas legislators from both sides of the aisle have signed a letter urging the governor and Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles to grant Ms. Lucio clemency. At times, they were homeless and relied on food banks for meals, according to the petition. [25], A 2020 documentary by Sabrina Van Tassel titled The State of Texas vs. Melissa follows Lucio's case. "Lucio still advances no evidence that is reliable and supportive of her acquittal," the office wrote in court documents last month. 27, 2022 for the 2007 death of Mariah. Click to reveal "This is a woman who has a history of being threatened, being yelled at," she said. Lucio's second-oldest daughter, 20 at the time of Mariah's death, said she told police and Lucio's lawyers that her 15-year-old sister would abuse Mariah when their parents weren't around . Melissa Lucio's daughter Mariah Alvarez's autopsy photos got released earlier, and the results are unconvincing to experts like Dr. Thomas Young. under such coercive conditions. The Texas Rangers did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails for comment about the case. ET:This article has been updated to reflect the latest news in this case. As indicated by legal counsel at the Lucio Reassessment Watch group, Melissa is not at fault. Mariah Alvarez: Melissa Lucio Daughter Mariah Alvarez Autopsy Viral on Twitter & Reddit. She was interrogated for five hours by armed police officers who reportedly berated her. "Please allow us to reconcile with Mariah's death and remember her without fresh pain, anguish and grief. Officers contaminated the confession by repeatedly showing Ms. Lucio photographs of relevant evidence and suggesting certain words and facts, which she ultimately parroted back to the officers. Please consult your doctor before taking any action. Lucio is now fighting to stop her April 27 execution date. "I was not gonna admit to causing her death because I wasn't responsible," Lucio said. She died two days later. a habeas petition with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeking a stay of her execution and arguing that she deserves a new trial because she is innocent and the State relied on false evidence,and hid favorable evidence, to convict her. "There's so much more to it that happens way before the crime.". The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Updated on April 18, 2022, 7:30 p.m. The Innocence Project notes that Lucio was pregnant with twins at the time and was likely overwhelmed and grief-stricken after Mariahs death. Andy Griffiths, a former senior investigating officer with the U.K. police, wrote in a 2012 article that the Peace model trains officers to focus on "probing a suspect's account" instead of trying to force a confession. Performance & security by Cloudflare. The State presented no physical evidence or witness testimony establishing that Lucio abused Mariah or any of her children, let alone killed Mariah, Judge Catharina Haynes wrote on behalf of the seven dissenting judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in response to the States scheduling of Lucios execution on April 27, 2022. Also outlined in the interrogation room were also outlined in the comments below join! Hear the truth: that Melissa did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails for comment the. 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