Melissa Lucio's son pleads for help to stop his mother's execution
DALLAS - The son of a Texas woman who’s on death row was in Dallas Friday pleading for help in halting her execution.
Melissa Lucio is set to be executed April 27 for the death of her 2-year-old child in 2007, but supporters and many state lawmakers from both parties have raised doubts about police tactics, legal representation and new evidence.
More than 90 state representatives, numerous supporters, and even jurors have raised doubts about this execution moving forward.
But they do not have as much at stake as Lucio’s own son.
John Lucio traveled to Dallas to share his mother’s story.
"I don’t want my mom to be executed. I don’t want to lose her," he said.
Melissa is on death row after a jury convicted her for the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah.
During hours of questioning, she denied fatally beating her daughter more than 100 times, but ultimately said, "I guess I did it."
Lawyers said prosecutors misinterpreted it as a confession and argued that jurors never heard evidence that suggested the injuries were from a fall days earlier.
Some jurors have since expressed doubts out about their decision.
"My mother is an innocent woman, my mother was never an abusing woman, the monster that the district attorney Armando Villalobos, former district attorney, made her seem like," her son said.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office has maintained that evidence shows it was the worst case of child abuse an ER doctor had seen in 30 years.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear her case.
But now, a coalition of Republican and Democratic state lawmakers are joining efforts to halt the execution.
"She is a survivor of a system that failed her despite overwhelming evidence supporting her innocence and Melissa Lucio can survive this with our help," said State Rep. Victoria Neave Criado (D – Dallas).
"When it comes to someone's liberty on the line, when someone's been robbed of their freedoms for a crime that they very likely did not commit, and I believe all lawmakers should be moved to act," said State Rep. Jeff Leach (R – Plano).
Leach and Criado were part of a group of lawmakers who traveled to Gatesville this week to meet with Lucio.
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"I and the other legislators came out of there more hopeful and more expectant than ever that April 27th will come and go, and Melissa Lucio will still be alive on April 28," Leach said.
Governor Greg Abbott has the power to grant a one-time, 30-day delay.
He can grant Lucio clemency, if a majority of the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends it.
Supporters are also pressuring the current Cameron County district attorney, Luis Saenz, to withdraw the execution warrant.
"The Cameron County district attorney, right now, has the ability to stop this execution single-handedly," Leach said. "He should do the right thing not only for Melissa and her daughter, but for the community and for the entire criminal justice system."
Until then, Lucio’s supporters will seek every avenue possible to make April 27 just another day.
"She’s an innocent woman I just ask that we please bring my mother home," Lucio’s son said.
Leach chairs the House Criminal Justice Reform Committee, and he’s called a hearing for Tuesday, in which he invited DA Saenz to testify.
In a letter provided to FOX 4 by Leach’s office, Saenz declined, citing the short notice and pressing matters.
Leach has since responded to set up virtual testimony, saying he expects Saenz to be there.