https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/16/us/melissa-lucio-death-sentence-texas-
judge/index.html?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc

A Texas judge last week recommended the conviction and sentence of a
mother on death row be overturned, finding prosecutors withheld key
evidence that could have prevented her from being found guilty in the 2007
death of her 2-year-old daughter.

The evidence � namely a Child Protective Services report and interviews
with inmate Melissa Lucio�s surviving children � would have corroborated
the defense�s theory at trial, according to a filing submitted by her
attorneys and prosecutors and signed by the judge on Friday: Lucio�s
toddler, Mariah Alvarez, died because of injuries sustained in an
accidental fall down stairs and not from abuse at the hands of her mother,
as the state claimed.

The case now returns to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which two
years ago halted Lucio�s execution two days before it was set to be
carried out, sending her claims back to the trial court in Cameron County
for review. The appeals court has the authority to overturn Lucio�s
conviction, and it�s unclear when it might make a decision.

Lucio�s case garnered widespread support in recent years, particularly
ahead of her scheduled execution. Kim Kardashian � the celebrity and
entrepreneur who has championed a number of death row inmates� cases � as
well as a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers called for mercy on Lucio�s
behalf, as did five members of her jury.

At least 197 people sentenced to death in the United States since 1973
have been exonerated, 16 of them in Texas, according to the non-profit
Death Penalty Information Center.

The recommendation in Lucio�s case by Judge Arturo Nelson � who presided
over her capital murder trial � comes more than a year after Lucio�s
attorneys and the Cameron County District Attorney�s Office submitted a
filing of agreed-upon facts and conclusions in the case, including an
acknowledgement the state withheld evidence favorable to Lucio. Both sides
agreed she was entitled to relief, they said this month in a joint
statement.

On Friday, Nelson signed that filing, indicating his agreement with its
conclusions and finding Lucio had �met her burden of proof, by a
preponderance of the evidence, that she would not have been convicted in
light of the suppressed evidence.�

�We are grateful to our mother�s legal team for their hard work to bring
the truth to light and to D.A. (Luis) Saenz for taking another look at our
mother�s case and recognizing that she did not receive a fair trial and
her conviction should be overturned,� two of Lucio�s sons, Bobby Alvarez
and John Lucio, and her daughter-in-law Michelle Lucio said in a statement
provided by Melissa Lucio�s attorneys.

�We hope and pray the Court of Criminal Appeals will agree with the
District Attorney, the defense, and Judge Nelson and our mother can come
home to her family,� their statement said. �It�s been 17 years that we
have been without her. We love her and miss her and can�t wait to hug
her.�

�Reasonable probability� trial outcome would be different
Then a toddler, Mariah died February 17, 2007, two days after, Lucio
contends, she fell down a set of steep stairs outside the family�s
apartment, potentially causing a traumatic head injury that caused her
death. Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued Lucio was an abusive mother
responsible for her daughter�s injuries, in part citing a purported
�confession� she gave authorities the night of Mariah�s death.

Lucio�s attorneys have denied she ever confessed, arguing her statement
was coerced during an �aggressive� interrogation and Lucio was susceptible
to coercion because of her history as a lifelong survivor of sexual abuse
and domestic violence.

The key evidence now at issue stems from Child Protective Services
interviews with five of Lucio�s other children in the hours after Mariah
died and ?statements two of the older children � one a teenager, the other
20 � gave police.

According to the filing of agreed-upon facts and conclusions by defense
attorneys and the district attorney�s office, several of Lucio�s children
denied to Child Protective Services that their mother was abusive and said
she had never hit them or Mariah. At least one of them witnessed Mariah�s
fall down the stairs.

Additionally, two of Lucio�s oldest daughters provided sworn statements to
police, corroborating details about Mariah�s declining health and their
mother�s mounting concern in the days before she died.

Both Lucio�s attorneys and prosecutors agreed, however, that this
evidence, was not disclosed to her trial lawyers � a so-called Brady
violation. If the evidence had been shared, the filing notes, Lucio�s
attorneys would have been able to present it as evidence that Mariah had
fallen and challenge testimony that suggested Lucio was lying. The
withholding of evidence also prevented Lucio�s attorneys from being able
to fully investigate the true cause of Mariah�s death, the filing says.

Ultimately, if the evidence had been disclosed to Lucio�s lawyers and
presented to the jury, �there is a reasonable probability that the outcome
of the trial would have been different,� the filing signed by the judge
concludes.

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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
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Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
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President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.