On April 27th, 53 year-old Melissa Lucio is set to be executed. She the first Hispanic woman to be sentenced to execution in the state of Texas, but many across the state and country are rallying to hopefully stop the execution.

Celebrities like Kim Kardashian have shown support for Melissa by posting on Facebook to spread her story and bipartisan groups of both Republican and Democrat representatives of Texas have came together to express their disapproval. Previous jurors from Lucio’s case have also come forward and explained that she should have a new trial because their was some evidence thrown out and they feel as though that evidence could change the outcome of her case.

Melissa Lucio was convicted of killing her two year old daughter in 2007, but with new evidence it appears that the death might have been a accident and a retrial and reevaluation of the evidence and testimonies is required.

Lucio is a mother of 14 and struggled with PTSD from domestic abuse her whole life, and coupled with clinical depression and drug addiction, while she tried to give her kids a good life it was very hard. They were in and out of homelessness and there never seemed to be enough food. In 2004, her children were taken by the state for neglect and Lucio was able to get clean and work hard for two years to get her kids back in 2006. Unfortunately in 2007 their lives would turn upside down when two year old Mariah tragically passed away. According to Melissa, when packing up their apartment to move into a new one, she quickly looked away and did not notice Mariah slip of a unlocked screen door and fall down the steps. When Melissa found Mariah, she was bleeding from her lip but mostly appeared okay. They soon moved into a new apartment and Mariah started acting strange and stopped eating. She soon stopped breathing and the family called 911. The EMT’s were not able to revive her and when Melissa said she fell down the stairs, one EMT noticed that they lived in a small first floor apartment and there didn’t seem to be stairs she could have fallen down but that was at their previous house and the EMT was misunderstanding what Melissa was saying. This is what started a night of violence and sadness for Melissa. Pregnant with twins, having just watched her young daughter die, and a history of surviving domestic abuse, it appears Melissa was coerced by investigators who yelled at her, showed her pictures of her dead daughter, claimed that if she didn’t do it one of her other children did, and accused her of being a bad and neglectful mother. This eventually got what could be manipulated into a confession and was later used against her in court. According to her attorney’s, Melissa denied hurting Mariah over a 100 times in the investigation and did admit to spanking Mariah, but never bringing physical harm upon her. The EMT’s testified at the trial saying that it was the worst case of abuse they had ever seen, but it appears the sever bruising all over Mariah was from a condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation, or DIC. DIC is commonly caused by head trauma, and her severe head trauma most likely caused the severe bruising all over her. Still Melissa was soon convicted of capital murder and was put on death row.

Since her sentencing, her other children have fought to free their mother, claiming she never laid a hand on them and that she is innocent. In 2019, a panel of judges concluded that Melissa was not given a full defense as a psychologist who could testify to Melissa’s abuse and how this affected her investigation and a social worker to testify as well, but in 2021 the panel changed their decision and her execution sentence was reinstated.

Her children have proclaimed her innocence and hope that not only will she not be executed, but hopefully she will be able to return home.