XPost: alt.activism.death-penalty, misc.immigration.usa, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: daily.mexican@gazette.com   
      
   SAN ANTONIO - The governor of Texas is under pressure to stop   
   the planned execution of a mother convicted of killing her   
   child. The woman, Melissa Lucio, a mother of 14, was found   
   guilty back in 2008 in the death of her 2-year-old daughter,   
   Mariah.   
      
   Lucio's lawyers say the evidence shows it was a tragic accident.   
   She is scheduled to be put to death on April 27. If the   
   execution goes ahead, she would be the first Latina to be   
   executed in the state of Texas.   
      
   Now, her family, more than 80 state lawmakers from both parties,   
   and even some of the jurors who convicted her say she should   
   live. Among them is one of her sons, John Lucio. During an   
   emotional press conference he stated, "I don't want my mom to be   
   executed."   
      
   Another of Lucio's children, Bobby Alvarez, carries the words of   
   his mom tattooed on his chest: "I'll always be with you, and   
   here I'll always stay." He told "CBS Mornings" correspondent   
   Lilia Luciano that he decided to get the tattoo, "because, you   
   know, it's close to my heart."   
      
   Bobby was seven when Mariah died. He said she fell down a flight   
   of stairs, and died two days later. "It was an accident," he   
   said. "If they go through with it, they'll be killing an   
   innocent woman."   
      
   That's what Lucio told first responders and the police. But when   
   the medical examiner saw the toddler's body covered in bruises,   
   it was ruled child abuse, and investigators zeroed in on Lucio.   
      
   In recordings of an interrogation, Lucio – who was pregnant with   
   twins at the time – is heard denying guilt.   
      
   "Are you a cold-blooded killer?"   
   "No, I'm not."   
   "Or were you a frustrated mother who just took it out on her for   
   whatever reason?"   
   "No."   
      
   Lucio endured more than five hours of interrogation in which she   
   denied killing Mariah, said Vanessa Potkin, director of special   
   litigation at The Innocence Project.   
      
   "Over 100 times, she asserted her innocence," said Potkin. "They   
   refused to listen to her, sending the clear message that this   
   interrogation wasn't going to stop until she told the officers   
   what they wanted to hear."   
      
   And she did, saying she spanked the child, but never admitting   
   to the use of deadly force. "I hit her like this," she   
   demonstrated by spanking a doll, sealing her fate.   
      
   "Her so-called confession was the result of highly coercive   
   interrogation tactics," said Potkin, "some of which are so   
   coercive that they're no longer used today."   
      
   Experts on false confessions who reviewed the interrogation   
   tapes say Lucio was especially vulnerable, as a victim of child   
   sexual abuse and later domestic violence, developing defense   
   mechanisms.   
      
   They wrote: "[A] history of trauma significantly reduces the   
   resilience of the trauma victims to cope with interrogative   
   pressure. … Ms. Lucio's passive and apparently flat demeanor …   
   is best explained by her history of repeated sexual, physical,   
   and emotional abuse since childhood."   
      
   Child Protection Services records show Lucio was neglectful, but   
   not violent against any of her children. But jurors didn't hear   
   testimony from any of Lucio's kids.   
      
   Tivon Schardl, supervisory assistant federal public defender in   
   the Capital Habeas Unit in Austin, and part of Lucio's current   
   defense team, said the jurors were not given the full picture:   
   "There's been just a concerted effort to keep this evidence from   
   being considered."   
      
   "Evidence that could have been exculpatory?" asked Luciano.   
      
   "Oh, it's definitely exculpatory," Schardl replied.   
      
   She should be executed for birthing 14 piglettes period.   
      
   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/melissa-lucio-execution-texas-   
   mother-family-pleads-stay-of-execution/   
      
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