XPost: tx.politics, alt.activism.death-penalty, sac.politics
XPost: talk.politics.guns

SAN ANTONIO - The governor of Texas is under pressure to stop
the planned execution of a mother convicted of killing her
child. The woman, Melissa Lucio, a mother of 14, was found
guilty back in 2008 in the death of her 2-year-old daughter,
Mariah.

Lucio's lawyers say the evidence shows it was a tragic accident.
She is scheduled to be put to death on April 27. If the
execution goes ahead, she would be the first Latina to be
executed in the state of Texas.

Now, her family, more than 80 state lawmakers from both parties,
and even some of the jurors who convicted her say she should
live. Among them is one of her sons, John Lucio. During an
emotional press conference he stated, "I don't want my mom to be
executed."

Another of Lucio's children, Bobby Alvarez, carries the words of
his mom tattooed on his chest: "I'll always be with you, and
here I'll always stay." He told "CBS Mornings" correspondent
Lilia Luciano that he decided to get the tattoo, "because, you
know, it's close to my heart."

Bobby was seven when Mariah died. He said she fell down a flight
of stairs, and died two days later. "It was an accident," he
said. "If they go through with it, they'll be killing an
innocent woman."

That's what Lucio told first responders and the police. But when
the medical examiner saw the toddler's body covered in bruises,
it was ruled child abuse, and investigators zeroed in on Lucio.

In recordings of an interrogation, Lucio – who was pregnant with
twins at the time – is heard denying guilt.

"Are you a cold-blooded killer?"
"No, I'm not."
"Or were you a frustrated mother who just took it out on her for
whatever reason?"
"No."

Lucio endured more than five hours of interrogation in which she
denied killing Mariah, said Vanessa Potkin, director of special
litigation at The Innocence Project.

"Over 100 times, she asserted her innocence," said Potkin. "They
refused to listen to her, sending the clear message that this
interrogation wasn't going to stop until she told the officers
what they wanted to hear."

And she did, saying she spanked the child, but never admitting
to the use of deadly force. "I hit her like this," she
demonstrated by spanking a doll, sealing her fate.

"Her so-called confession was the result of highly coercive
interrogation tactics," said Potkin, "some of which are so
coercive that they're no longer used today."

Experts on false confessions who reviewed the interrogation
tapes say Lucio was especially vulnerable, as a victim of child
sexual abuse and later domestic violence, developing defense
mechanisms.

They wrote: "[A] history of trauma significantly reduces the
resilience of the trauma victims to cope with interrogative
pressure. … Ms. Lucio's passive and apparently flat demeanor …
is best explained by her history of repeated sexual, physical,
and emotional abuse since childhood."

Child Protection Services records show Lucio was neglectful, but
not violent against any of her children. But jurors didn't hear
testimony from any of Lucio's kids.

Tivon Schardl, supervisory assistant federal public defender in
the Capital Habeas Unit in Austin, and part of Lucio's current
defense team, said the jurors were not given the full picture:
"There's been just a concerted effort to keep this evidence from
being considered."

"Evidence that could have been exculpatory?" asked Luciano.

"Oh, it's definitely exculpatory," Schardl replied.

She should be executed for birthing 14 piglettes period.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/melissa-lucio-execution-texas- mother-family-pleads-stay-of-execution/

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