Texas inmate Melissa Lucio’s death sentence should be overturned, judge says

HOUSTON– A judge has recommended that the conviction and death sentence of Melissa Lucio, a Texas woman whose execution was delayed until 2022 amid growing doubts that she fatally beat her 2-year-old daughter, should be overturned amid the discovery that the Evidence in his murder trial was suppressed.

State District Judge Arturo Nelson on Friday approved an agreement between prosecutors and Lúcio’s lawyers that concluded that suppressed evidence, including witness statements from Lúcio’s children and a report from Child Protective Services, would have corroborated the defense. de Lúcio that his daughter Mariah died of a head injury. she suffered in an accidental fall down a steep staircase two days before her death.

“She would not have been convicted in light of the suppressed evidence,” according to the 33-page agreement between Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz’s office and Lucio’s attorneys.

Nelson’s recommendation was sent to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which will make the final decision on whether to overturn Lúcio’s conviction and death sentence. There was no deadline for a ruling by the appeals court. Lucio’s case became a cause célèbre among people, including Kim Kardashian.

“We hope and pray that the Court of Criminal Appeals agrees with the district attorney, the defense, and that Judge Nelson and our mother can return home to their family. We’ve been without her for 17 years. We love and miss her and can’t wait to hug her,” Lúcio’s children said in a statement on Monday.

The agreement on the conclusions of Lúcio’s case remained in limbo for 16 months before another judge, Gabriela Garcia. On April 5, lawyers for Lucio and Saenz issued a joint public statement in which they discussed that the findings were still under review by Garcia.

On April 10, Missy Medary, presiding judge of the Fifth Administrative Judicial District in South Texas, assigned Nelson to handle pending findings in the case. Nelson, who is a retired judge and presided over Lúcio’s trial in 2008, approved the conclusions two days later.

It was not immediately known why Nelson was assigned to review the findings. Court administrators for Garcia and Medary did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment.

Lucio, 55, received a lethal injection in April 2022 for the 2007 death of his daughter in Harlingen, a city of about 71,000 people in far southern Texas. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted the lethal injection two days before the scheduled execution so that Lúcio’s claims that new evidence would exonerate her could be reviewed.

Before the findings agreed to and approved by Nelson, prosecutors had long maintained that Mariah was a victim of abuse and noted that her body was covered in bruises.

Lucio’s case has drawn support from Kardashian and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Democratic state Rep. Joe Moody.

“Melissa Lucio has been imprisoned for over a decade and a half, which is an unimaginable injustice, but one that can at least be undone,” Moody said in a Tuesday post on the social platform X.

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