The eyes of the world were upon Texas last week, looking to see if the state would execute a woman who very well may be innocent of the crime for which she was sentenced to die.
The scales of justice have weighed against Melissa Lucio since 2007. But last Monday, the highest criminal court in Texas began the process of potentially balancing those scales and offering Lucio a fresh opportunity to prove her innocence.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution to Lucio just two days before she was scheduled to be executed for the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah.
A mother of 14, Lucio was found guilty in 2008 of physical abuse leading to Mariah’s death in Harlingen. After affirming her innocence more than 100 times during five hours of interrogation, Lucio finally said, “I guess I did it. I’m responsible.”
That ambiguous admission of quilt, bullied out of a woman who was a longtime victim of domestic violence and sexual abuse, was the primary evidence presented at her trial. Not entered, though, was evidence that Mariah’s death may have been the result of a fall, nor did jurors hear about the absence in Child Protective Services records of any allegations or evidence of abuse.
As Lucio’s case and its exculpatory details became more widely known through the years, so did demands that she be taken off death row, given a new trial or even released. In the months leading up to her execution date, Lucio has drawn support from around the world, including from celebrities. Some of the jurors who convicted her have expressed deep remorse, and politicians across party lines have rallied in support of her. Most of the Texas House of Representatives and more than two-thirds of the Texas Senate had asked for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott to stop the execution.
In the end, it was the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that intervened.
Now the pressure turns to Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, who said his office has “the opportunity to prosecute this case in the courtroom: where witnesses testify under oath, where witnesses may be cross-examined, where evidence is governed by the rules of evidence and criminal procedure, and where the court rules pursuant to the rule of law.”
“That is our criminal jurisprudence system,” he said, “and it is working.”
Saenz had refused to exercise his power to withdraw the execution warrant, saying at a hearing earlier this month that if Lucio didn’t get a stay by “a certain day” he’d stop it. He didn’t.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was scheduled to meet last Monday to discuss the case and make a recommendation to Abbott. But the Court of Criminal Appeals acted first, remanding four of nine claims from Lucio’s defense team back to a trial court in Cameron County. Among the questions to be answered: whether she is innocent, whether new scientific evidence may have precluded a conviction and whether the state suppressed favorable evidence for the defense. This sends the case back to Cameron County, where a hearing will give Lucio’s attorneys an opportunity to develop grounds for actual innocence.
Any hearing could take months, or even years, to determine whether Lucio will receive a new trial. While the stay does not remove the possibility that Lucio will be executed, it indefinitely postpones the execution.
The court’s ruling granted Lucio, her family and supporters the gift of more time. With so many questions looming, it would have been unconscionable to go forward with an execution. Now comes an opportunity to prove her innocence.
San Antonio Express-News
