Kim Kardashian and Amanda Knox are among figures publicly appealing to Governor Gregg Abbott to issue a stay to death row inmate Melissa Lucio ahead of her execution date on April 27, 2022.
Earlier this month, Kardashian shared a letter on Twitter that Lucio's 10 children penned to the governor begging him to spare their mother's life. "So heartbreaking to read this letter from Melissa Lucio's children begging for the state not to kill their mother," Kardashian wrote. "There are so many unresolved questions surrounding this case and the evidence that was used to convict her. This is one of the many reasons why I am against the death penalty – and why I pray her children's wish is granted and their mother's life is spared."
Lucio was sentenced to death in the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, after being coerced into a confession by officers. Medical examiner evidence that initially pointed the finger at Lucio has since come into question by experts in the industry, who believe the child's death was an accident and not the result of extensive abuse. Recently, Amanda Knox explained why she relates to Lucio and is also hopeful the woman's life will be spared.
"A few months ago, in that blurry haze of new motherhood, I left my infant daughter Eureka on the couch for just a few seconds. She rolled and slipped and tumbled to the floor, hitting her head, then burst out crying," Amanda Knox wrote in the beginning of a Twitter thread on the case and her feelings related to it.
"I held her against my chest, crying myself, trying to calm her, feeling like the worst mother in the world. My mom reassured me that I'd hit my own head in the exact same way more than once. And sure enough, Eureka was fine. Not even a bruise."
"It's a rite of passage, I learned, the first time your child falls, that first moment of parental negligence, that first jolt of unexpected pain that shocks them (and you) into tears. But an hour later, they're okay and you're okay, and life goes on. Unless it doesn't," Knox continued.
"Unless you're Melissa Lucio, whose daughter died from just such an accident, Melissa Lucio, whom the state of Texas plans to execute on April 27th for a crime that never even occurred."
Knox explained the work she does with the Innocence Project and how she came to do the work, giving back to a group that had advocated for her. She said what stuck with her most through the experience was the women she met who had been wrongfully convicted of killing their children.
"Women like Sabrina Butler and Kristine Bunch, shook me, for they had been accused of killing their own children. They had not been allowed to grieve the deaths of their babies, so quickly had the state turned on them, shoved them into a cell," she wrote.
Knox noted that "when women are wrongfully convicted, in nearly 70% of cases it's for crimes that never occurred - deaths by accident, disease or suicide, and in nearly a third of cases, it's for the deaths of their own children or children in their care."
Then Knox shared Lucio's story and how she ended up on death row, where her life may end.
"Melissa Lucio's life was difficult from the start. She grew up poor in Lubbock, Texas. From the age of six, she was sexually abused by two adult male relatives," Knox wrote.
"At sixteen, she became a child bride to escape her abusive household, but wound up with a husband who was violent towards her, and who eventually abandoned her with five children. Her next husband was no better. He repeatedly choked and raped her, and threatened to kill her."
"Melissa Lucio's entire life, she had been the victim of abuse. And when she finally escaped that second husband, she was kidnapped into the abusive arms of the state of Texas," she continued.
Knox went on to explain how Lucio was vulnerable to the tactics of the investigators who allegedly coerced her into confessing.
Over six hours late at night, while Lucio was pregnant with twins and was trying to wrap her mind around the fact that her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, was dead, she was interrogated by officers. Her eight other children were in another room, talking to officers and assuring them their mother had never hurt any of them or Mariah.
Lucio was interrogated using the Reid technique, a controversial practice that has elicited false confessions in past cases. Officers get into a person's face, screaming accusations and threats, then immediately soften and assure them a confession could make the whole problem go away.
"It's natural to think, 'I would never confess to something I didn't do.' I certainly thought that before I found myself in an interrogation room," Knox noted of the interrogation facts.
"I've written about my own coerced false admission many times, trying to understand it myself and to educate others about how innocent people can be pressured to implicate themselves. The more vulnerable they are, the easier it is for police to do so."
"I don't know what you want me to say," Lucio eventually told officers.
"I'm responsible for it … I guess I did it."
That confession was at the core of the trial that saw Lucio convicted and sentenced to death.
That trial saw Lucio presented as an abusive parent who brutalized her daughter to death, but the findings of child protective services and testimony from Lucio's other children spoke to the contrary. Lucio's history of abuse was also not allowed to be discussed at trial, further skewing the jury against her. The district attorney who prosecuted Lucio is currently serving a 13-year prison sentence for bribery and extortion unrelated to this case.
Today, medical experts believe that Mariah died as the result of a fall down a steep flight of stairs that her siblings witnessed, but Lucio did not. The 2-year-old had a documented history of tumbles, which may have been caused by an undiagnosed disability. Later, it was found that she had a blood coagulation disorder that left her easily susceptible to bruising.
Hundreds of religious bodies, along with women's and domestic violence advocacy groups, are also continuing to advocate for Lucio. Five jurors who served on her trial have called for reprieve after other details have come to light. Clemency would keep her alive, but wouldn't guarantee she is ever free again. Lucio's legal team is currently calling for her execution to be canceled and a new trial to be granted.
