Texas Appeals Court Keeps Melissa Lucio on Death Row After Rejecting Innocence Ruling
A Texas appeals court rejected a 2024 trial judge ruling that Melissa Lucio, 58, is innocent of killing her 2-year-old daughter. Her attorneys say they will now take the case to federal courts.
Texas Appeals Court Overturns Innocence Finding for Melissa Lucio
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday rejected a lower court ruling that Melissa Lucio — who has spent 18 years on death row — is innocent of capital murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah, ABC News US reports.
The sharply divided decision leaves Lucio, 58, on Texas' death row. She had narrowly escaped execution in 2022 when the same court ordered a review of her case just two days before her scheduled lethal injection. Her attorneys announced Thursday they will now appeal to federal courts.
Lucio was convicted of capital murder after Mariah died from severe head trauma. Prosecutors argued the injuries resulted from abuse; the child's body was covered in bruises. The defense countered that Mariah was not beaten but fell down a steep staircase two days before her death.
The appeals court had previously ordered the original trial court to review several of Lucio's claims. That review produced a 62-page ruling in 2024 in which the trial judge concluded Lucio was "actually innocent" of capital murder. The ruling also found that prosecutors had presented false testimony, suppressed evidence, and that new scientific evidence unavailable at the time of Lucio's 2008 trial contradicted the state's case. Prosecutors had themselves conceded during the appeal that they withheld material evidence at trial.
The five-judge majority on the all-Republican appeals court said Thursday that the trial judge's ruling leaned too heavily on Lucio's interpretation of events rather than the prosecution's. The majority opinion was unsigned. Four judges dissented.
The case drew support from a wide range of public figures, including Kim Kardashian, an advocate for criminal justice reform, and Amanda Knox — the American whose murder conviction in Italy was overturned — both of whom had rallied to Lucio's cause. Lawmakers from both parties had also called for her release.
Vanessa Potkin, director of special litigation at the Innocence Project and one of Lucio's attorneys, said the legal fight is not over.
"We will proceed to federal court and do everything in our power to make sure Melissa, an innocent mother who has suffered unbelievably, is not executed for a crime that never occurred," Potkin said.
Should Lucio ultimately be exonerated, she would be the first woman declared innocent from Texas death row, joining 18 men exonerated since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Should she be executed, she would be the first Latina put to death by Texas since 1863 and the first woman executed by the state since 2014.
Source: ABC News US