On June 11, 2019, oral argument will be heard in Lucio's appeal before the Fifth Circuit.
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/clerk/ca...6/16-70027.htm
On June 11, 2019, oral argument will be heard in Lucio's appeal before the Fifth Circuit.
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/clerk/ca...6/16-70027.htm
The Fifth Circuit panel hearing Lucio's appeal will be made up of Senior Judge Higginbotham (Reagan), Judge Haynes (G.W. Bush) and Judge Graves (Obama).
http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/clerk/ca...6/16-70027.htm
Edited:
Mom Given Death Penalty for Killing Young Daughter Wins Relief
By Bloomberg Law
A mother who was sentenced to death for killing her two-year-old daughter didn’t receive a fair trial, the Fifth Circuit said.
Paramedics were called to Melissa Lucio’s house because her daughter, Mariah, wasn’t breathing. Melissa said Mariah had fallen down the stairs, and doctors determined a blow to her head killed her.
Mariah’s body showed signs of severe abuse, and police officers questioned Melissa for five hours about the bruises. After 3:00 a.m., Melissa admitted spanking Mariah, but not hitting her in the head.
A tape of Melissa’s interrogation was admitted into evidence at her trial.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/white-...er-wins-relief
"I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
- Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian
"There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
- Rev. Richard Hawke
“There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
- Rowan Atkinson
The Fifth Circuit GRANTED Texas' request for en banc rehearing. Link to the order below.
https://twitter.com/RDunhamDPIC/stat...22326671429632
Last edited by Mastro Titta; 01-23-2020 at 04:01 AM.
Graves is definitely one of the most liberal judges appointed by Obama. I hope in five years time he’s no longer on the courts then Trump can pick his successor assuming he’s re-elected.
Last edited by Neil; 01-23-2020 at 12:44 PM.
This is great I hope soon to see a beautiful majority option by judge Ho telling this child killer and her scumbag lawyers to suck the barrel of a shotgun
She is lucky she is female. If a guy had killed a child and was possibly going back to gen pop.....they would not last too long. The justice treats females way too leniently.
The State of Texas vs. Melissa
“The State of Texas wants to kill me,” Melissa Lucio tells the camera in the opening minutes of Sabrina Van Tassel’s quietly heart-wrenching documentary The State of Texas vs. Melissa. Lucio, who’s been on Texas’ death row since 2008 for the killing of her 2-year-old daughter, speaks to the camera from a prison visiting area. She looks tired as she confesses: “I don’t understand how the court system did this to me.”
For anyone versed in Texas’ death row, Lucio’s story (which Van Tassel tells with great care) is nothing new. Every year, Black and brown Texans appeal death sentences arguing poor trial defense, a history of abuse and poverty, and mental health issues should keep them from being executed. Some are likely innocent. The state nor the courts rarely side with the prisoner and Texas holds its lead as the state with the highest number of executions. It’s the commonality of Lucio’s story and case that makes Van Tassel’s documentary more impactful.
Lucio, from Harlingen in South Texas, is believed to be the first Latina woman sentenced to death in Cameron County. Her case, as Van Tassel depicts, is riddled with ineptitude and what can only be described as corruption. The documentary, which somehow manages to capture Texas' unfiltered natural beauty alongside the cruelty of its legal system, is told through interviews with Lucio’s family – her now-grown children, her siblings, and her mother – plus interviews with her appellate attorney, her trial attorney, and a private investigator. Other parts of the story are told through footage: Various interviews following the child’s death, including clips from Lucio’s near-seven-hour interrogation and of her children being asked to discuss their home life. The kids are calm, nervous, and well-behaved – a perfect (and tragic) foil for when Lucio’s trial defense attorney insists her kids were wild and would not have cooperated in a courtroom.
Van Tassel, a French-American filmmaker and journalist, wrote and directed the film with both a focus on Lucio and her family, and a powerful look at poverty. “I don’t think she ever had a single piece of new furniture,” Lucio’s sister says while the camera pans across houses in various states of disrepair and trash piles with broken furniture. In doing so, Van Tassel also highlights the death penalty’s inhumanity. One can’t help but ask: Would Melissa be on death row if she were white or affluent, if she could’ve afforded a lawyer who called even a single witness to speak on her behalf?
Poor lawyering is just a piece of the criminal justice system that, at best, failed Lucio or, at worst, framed her for a tragic death she didn’t commit.
“Are you a cold blooded killer or just a frustrated mother?” One of three cops demand of Lucio during her interrogation; they ask her to show them how she beat her daughter. She repeats, “I don’t hit my children.” Her confession, which acts as the film’s prologue, showcases how the system treats poor brown women. Though it’s a gut-wrenching story, The State of Texas vs. Melissa, works hard to offer viewers the smallest semblance of hope.
The State of Texas vs. Melissa is available now as a virtual cinema release.
https://www.austinchronicle.com/even...xas-v-melissa/
An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.
"Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd
Lucio brutally murdered her own child and her gender and ethnicity is irrelevant. If it was a white male the outcome would likely be the same. I’m so tired of these people trying to make the death penalty about race
Thank you for the adventure - Axol
Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park
Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt
I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello
The reason for this, Lucio knows that her final days are coming within a couple of years knowing that Lisa Coleman who starved her daughter to death was indeed executed. Texas has no hesitation into sending a death row inmate to Huntsville for their execution being a child killer. Lucio is one of many who will see the gurney through the steel door.
"How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog
"When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks