The State Of Texas Will Execute Melissa Lucio On April 27th, 2022 And She Did Not Physically Abuse Or Murder Her 2 Year Old Daughter Mariah Alvarez

The house on Lee Street 

 If the state of Texas carries out the execution on April 27th Melissa Lucio will be the first Hispanic woman to be put to death in the state of Texas. This case may at first glance look horrific and the conviction and sentence if not just at least understandable. An impoverished mother with a history of drug use violently beat her two year old daughter to death.

Melissa was born in to an impoverished family in Lubbock, Texas in 1969. Se was sexually abused at the age of six by a male family member and like many other young girls with no money, education or seemingly way out she got pregnant at sixteen to escape the home. The next years were spent in the same all to familiar cycle of one abusive man after another and struggling to provide for her family. The family did not have much-many of their furnishings were collected from what others had thrown away and very minimal-in 2008 there was little more than a milk crate, a 19 inch box tv, and a mattress on the floor. At the time of Mariah's accident Melissa was pregnant with twins. The Texas Department of Children and Families had been in and out of the family's lives and reviewing thousands of pages of DCF documents, social worker interviews with the children and police interviews there was not one allegation that Melissa physically abused her children. The reports stated she struggled with drugs. There were allegations that she sold their food stamps for marijuana and that the children at times had no running water and depended upon the school system for personal hygiene. One statement in the reports was that there was little food in the house yet not one of the children looked malnourished or had lost weight as a result.

It is clear that Melissa Lucio was not meeting all the needs of her children. She was outnumbered, had little money, no education, little resources and unfortunately her story is all to familiar for any who have worked or volunteered in their community with the marginalized. However that is not capitol murder and not enough to execute a woman in 2022 is it?

On February 17, 2007 Mariah Alvarez was found unresponsive by the Harlingen, Texas first responders at the tiny house off of Lee Street. Harlingen is a community in the greater Brownsville, Texas area. When asked why Mariah appeared to be covered in bruises both the children and Melissa stated that she had fallen down the stairs. The first responders looked at each other and the three steps leading up to the door and then at Mariah's bruised body and quickly became suspicious of the explanation given. This is the moment where the investigation into Mariah's death went sideways and a tragic accident resulted in a capitol murder charge and death penalty conviction.

Unbeknownst at that time and somehow never considered was the fact that Melissa Lucio and her family had moved from another apartment two days prior where there was a flight of rickety and uneven stairs as you can see in the photo above. Also the fact that two year old Mariah had one foot that turned inward when she walked and as a result was even more clumsy than toddlers are at that age. That instant suspicion led to an innocent woman being convicted and sentenced to die for a crime that did not occur.

Why or better yet how could this happen? Well several things come into play here and its the same things that unfortunately we have come to recognize are the keys to wrongful convictions.

The district attorney/prosecutor who handled Melissa's case was none other than Cameron County DA Armando Villalobos a now disgraced convicted felon who is currently in federal prison after being convicted of violating the federal RICO act. The crimes that Villalobos committed to violate the act consisted of things such as taking money from defendants to "look the other way"- on criminal charges. Villalobos would reduce charges or throw out cases all together in exchange for cash. The case that led to his conviction on federal charges was ongoing at the time of Melissa and Mariah's case and that is the case of Amit Livingston a convicted murderer who right after being sentenced to 23 years in prison on February 7, 2007 (ten days before Mariah's death) who was allowed by Villalobos and the judge in that case to have 60 days to get his "affairs in order". Livingston left court the day of his sentencing and was a fugitive of justice for eight years until his arrest in India. Villalobos was also involved in a scheme with the bondsman, judge and another attorney to profit off of the civil suit filed against Amit by the murdered woman's children that was exposed thanks to an informant. If there is an unethical prosecutor or district attorney involved in a case then no one should be surprised at the results. Villalobos did not care about the truth or justice. His criminal record and prison sentence is undisputable evidence of that.

Then Melissa's Public Defender (and I use that word very loosely) in this case was a man by the name of Pete Gilman. Gilman was not an advocate for his client and that is putting it kindly. Gilman had in his possession evidence that one of Melissa's children had confessed to pushing Mariah down the stairs and he informed the social worker/investigator Norma Villanueva that the child was not his client and that she had her whole life ahead of her and he did not want to ruin it. He also told the social worker/investigator not to speak about the child's confession to anyone outside of his office.

Gilman did not mention any of this evidence  at Melissa's trial or at her sentencing hearing. He did not do much of anything to fight for his clients innocence or to keep his client off of death row. He did not have a forensic pathologist testify that untreated closed head wounds cause the body to bruise all over. That simply laying on a mattress can leave bruises because the blood is no longer clotting properly. That the bruises and the "bite mark" that could not be matched to anyone were from Mariah's organs shutting down and not from being repeatedly abused. He did not refute the allegations made by the medical examiner and officers of bite marks on Mariah's body could not be matched to anyone and that bite mark analysis has long been considered junk science by many experts and has resulted in dozens of wrongful convictions.

Not long after Melissa Lucio was convicted of capitol murder and sentenced to death in July of 2008 Pete Gilman (pictured above)  left the public defenders office and went to work for the Cameron County District Attorneys Office-the same office that had just sentenced his client to die.

In 2011 Melissa's first appeal was denied. Melissa filed another appeal in federal court in which she was granted relief by a three judge panel. The state appealed this decision and the en banc hearing at the 5th circuit ruled with a split decision with 10 for and 7 dissenting denying the appeal.. Judge Hayes wrote this in the dissenting opinion in the decision-

"The State presented no physical evidence or witness testimony establishing that Lucio abused Mariah or any of her children, let alone killed Mariah … The jury as deprived of key evidence to weigh: that is the point.”

The judges also wrote that they were bound by AEDPA legislation (the anti-terrorism act) and could not offer Melissa relief. That decision was issued in 2021.  On January 13, 2022 Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz filed the paperwork to have Melissa executed in April. Judge Gabriela Garcia signed the execution order the next day. The fact that Garcia signed the document that set in motion a clock that if the state of Texas is successful will result in the death of Melissa Lucio twenty four hours after receiving the request really disturbs me for many reasons. That signature is effectively saying it is okay to end a human life in the name of justice. I would think that Garcia would have wanted to take a few days and familiarize herself with the case and make sure that justice will best be served by killing Melissa Lucio. Furthermore with all the issues the courts and prisons have had with the COVID 19 pandemic what is the rush. Then there is the well known fact that many of the last executions carried out have been concerning with botched execution reports.

If you believe that Melissa Lucio's case needs to be re-evaluated, that she is in fact innocent and that she should not die on April 27th,2022 here is a petition the Innocence Project has that you can sign.  

Why is the state of Texas in such a hurry to execute Melissa Lucio?