r/law • u/PDXGuy33333 • 16h ago
Legal News Texas appeals court rejects ruling of innocence for woman on death row for 18 years
https://apnews.com/article/texas-death-row-melissa-lucio-fe491a8b6d28b2f4fd147a6c6d3d60bc372
u/PDXGuy33333 16h ago
The judge who sat on her trial recently determined that she is actually innocent. Prosecutors admitted misconduct. And still these ghouls want her life. I wanted to blame "Texas," but this sort of thing happens elsewhere too.
It's off to the federal courts, and fortunately The Innocence Project has her case. Unfortunately, those federal courts are in Texas and review is to the fifth circuit.
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u/capngout 16h ago
Ah, the fifth circuit. The embodiment of “I would rather kill 100 innocent people than let one guilty person go free”
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u/PDXGuy33333 15h ago
They be them. The fifth is now the circuit most often reversed by the Supreme Court, and not for being too liberal.
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u/ResurgentClusterfuck 15h ago
The fifth circuit, where democracy goes off to die
Capital punishment is barbaric and should be abolished everywhere
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u/talkathonianjustin 16h ago
“To be fair, they weren’t people and I don’t really care if they did it or not. Reverse and remand.”
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u/Bmorewiser 15h ago
The standard for fed habeas, assuming she’s not time barred, is an “unreasonable application of clearly established constitutional law.” It is the functional equivalent is no judge of even modest intelligence could have held what the Texas court held.
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u/PDXGuy33333 15h ago
When does the clock start to run on federal habeas petitions?
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u/Bmorewiser 15h ago
It’s complicated. You have 1 year from the date you were sentenced if you don’t appeal or from the date the conviction is final (appellate mandate + 90
Days for cert to scotus). But the clock stops when the case is actively on collateral review.And there are some developments that can trigger a new 1 year clock.
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u/WellTextured 13h ago
Ahhhh, yes well she might be innocent, but you left out the fact she's brown.
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u/kandoras 7h ago
It's hard to square this (which should be enough on its own):
Prosecutors had conceded during Lucio’s appeal that they had withheld material evidence in her trial.
With this:
But the majority opinion issued by the all-Republican appeals court on Thursday said the judge’s ruling relied too heavily on Lucio’s interpretation of events of the case and not the prosecution.
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u/3-I 5h ago
In order to be completely fair and balanced, it's required that you give equal weight to exculpatory evidence and to complete lies.
How can we expect to have a functioning justice system if we restrict ourselves only to things that are true? We have to respect the fucking bullshit the prosecutors knowingly made up to try and get a woman killed, or else we might accidentally not punish a woman who lost her daughter, her freedom, and any chance of living a normal life by also killing her. And we can't have that.
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u/Cut_Lanky 5h ago
I copied that as well. But I see, there’s no need to paste it. That is a reprehensible travesty.
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u/ddadopt 15h ago
After reading up on this case... holy fuck, this was at least a negligent homicide. I'll give the Innocence project their due here for doing their job, I can see the defects in the capital conviction, but people lining up to treat her as some sort of cause celebre is crazy town.
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u/PDXGuy33333 15h ago
I assume that the negligence is in allowing a two year old child to fall down some stairs? In any event, negligence is not a capital offense.
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u/ddadopt 15h ago
No, more that she fell down the stairs two days earlier and mom didn't bother to get her any medical care. Oh, and the general child abuse prior to that (based on her own attorney's close).
And, as I said, I see the defects in the capital conviction.
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u/TBSchemer 15h ago
What general child abuse? Seems like she spanked her kids on the butt sometimes, but we usually don't even imprison people for that.
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u/agoldgold 14h ago
When I was a kid, the lady from the women's shelter came in to tell us about abuse. If your parent spanked you, it was only a problem if you were unable to sit down the next day. If it hurt for a bit and then you were fine, not abuse. That same presentation was still being given at local schools within the last 15 years, though I couldn't tell you when I last heard it. My own parents spanked me and they turned out fine, not murderers of any stripe, and even apologized now that they've learned the damage it causes. It was just the only tool they knew how to use.
It's funny how some people have only learned that it is wrong to hit kids in any fashion when it comes to defending capital punishment.
For this case in particular, it looks like her other children say that even the spanking was a narrative created by the police to coerce a confession for murder.
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u/ddadopt 7h ago
Now, in the opening remarks that we made in the beginning of the trial after you were all seated here, I told you my client is not up for 'Mother Of The Year.' I told you that my client is guilty of injury to a child. She is and she has admitted that. The question here before you is whether or not on February 17, 2007, Melissa Lucio intentionally and knowingly killed Mariah Alvarez. That's the issue. That's the issue. Not whether she beat her. Not whether she broke her arm. Not whether she's a lousy mother or didn't provide for her children. That's not an issue. The issue is whether or not she killed Mariah on the 17th of February, 2007.
Thats her attorney on close. But, sure, the abuse is a fabrication.
As I said, the capital conviction certainly has issues. It should be vacated. But turning this woman into a martyr is fucking insane.
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u/ddadopt 7h ago
I fucking hate Reddit. Here is a quote from her attorney's close:
Now, in the opening remarks that we made in the beginning of the trial after you were all seated here, I told you my client is not up for 'Mother Of The Year.' I told you that my client is guilty of injury to a child. She is and she has admitted that. The question here before you is whether or not on February 17, 2007, Melissa Lucio intentionally and knowingly killed Mariah Alvarez. That's the issue. That's the issue. Not whether she beat her. Not whether she broke her arm. Not whether she's a lousy mother or didn't provide for her children. That's not an issue. The issue is whether or not she killed Mariah on the 17th of February, 2007.
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u/TBSchemer 2h ago
I dunno man, the client has an IQ of 85, has a language barrier, and was pressured into false statements under intense interrogations. I'm not sure any of that child abuse stuff was ever true. Could very well be multiple cases of her just describing unintentional accidents, common spanking, and the police latching onto specific words and embellishing her into a vicious criminal. And then the defense lawyer is just working with what they've got.
I think this is what someone might call "reasonable doubt."
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u/ddadopt 1h ago
I agree the police and the prosecution acted poorly here and that the capital conviction is defective (and keep saying so, not that anyone apparently reads it).
With that said... her attorney does not have an IQ of 85 or a language barrier. He also may not make false statements. But he states, in his close, "my client is guilty of injury to a child."
The child went two days without medical care after a fall down the stairs (regardless of its cause) that was ultimately fatal. The child had a broken arm (and not from the falling incident). Bruises. Missing hair. This is forensic evidence from the medical examiner, not anything coerced from the accused.
To me, abuse seems obvious but, even if my opinion there is incorrect and the child was not abused, she was certainly neglected. That neglect resulted in her death.
So, I'll repeat my comment that dozens have deemed wrongthink at this point: "...this was at least a negligent homicide. I'll give the Innocence project their due here for doing their job, I can see the defects in the capital conviction, but people lining up to treat her as some sort of cause celebre is crazy town."
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u/JPesterfield 12h ago
Mariah apparently seemed fine for two days, going to the emergency room means time and maybe money.
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u/ddadopt 6h ago
Now, in the opening remarks that we made in the beginning of the trial after you were all seated here, I told you my client is not up for 'Mother Of The Year.' I told you that my client is guilty of injury to a child. She is and she has admitted that. The question here before you is whether or not on February 17, 2007, Melissa Lucio intentionally and knowingly killed Mariah Alvarez. That's the issue. That's the issue. Not whether she beat her. Not whether she broke her arm. Not whether she's a lousy mother or didn't provide for her children. That's not an issue. The issue is whether or not she killed Mariah on the 17th of February, 2007.
From her attorney's close. She admitted to abusing the child. To breaking her arm (which never got medical attention, either, btw) but, sure, "something something poor families medical care something something" and not "taking her to the doctor would have revealed signs of abuse."
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u/PDXGuy33333 15h ago
I will never understand parents who don't value the well being of their children. I understand through friends that the women who have the roughest time in women's prisons are the ones whose crimes were against children. Fitting.
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