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    • Texas mother on death row backed by Kim Kardashian ‘actually innocent’ of murder, judge says
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    Texas mother on death row backed by Kim Kardashian ‘actually innocent’ of murder, judge says

    Online Niel Posted on

    A death row inmate convicted of killing her daughter is “actually innocent” of the crime and should be released from custody, the inmate’s judge has told him. documents unearthed Thursday.

    Cameron County District Court Judge Arturo Nelson is on the appeal Melissa Elizabeth Lucio, 56, and said “the death sentence and conviction should be vacated.”

    Lucio “met her burden and produced clear and convincing evidence that she is in fact innocent of the crime of capital murder,” Nelson wrote in court documents reported Thursday by NBC affiliate KPRC in Houston.

    The case, which gained notoriety by reality TV star and aspiring lawyer Kim Kardashian is now in front of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

    Texas death row holds Melissa Lucio
    Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio holds one of her sons, John.Family photo via AP file

    Lucio was found responsible for the 2007 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Mariah, in Harlingen. a city of about 71,000 inhabitants on the southern tip of Texas. Lucio has 13 surviving children.

    “On February 17, 2007, paramedics were dispatched to a residence where they found an unresponsive two-year-old child who later died,” according to Lucio’s death row inmate profile maintained by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “Evidence of abuse led to the arrest and conviction of Lucio, the child’s mother.”

    She was scheduled to be executed on April 27, 2022, before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals intervened two days earlierr to review new evidence that Mariah’s fatal injuries were caused by a fall down a steep flight of stairs.

    Over the years. Lucio’s case has attracted the support of an unlikely and diverse set of advocates.

    “So heartbreaking to read this letter from Melissa Lucio’s children, begging the state not to kill their mother,” Kim. Kardashian wrote in 2022.

    “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 I am against the death penalty – and why I pray that her children’s wish will be granted and their mother’s life spared. .”

    Amanda Knox, the American once accused of murder in Italy, previously lamented in 2022 that Lucio was on death row.”for a crime that didn’t even happen.”

    Rep. of State Jeff Leach, a Republican who supports Donald Trump of Plano, was also previously Lucio’s side, after he said that authorities must “do everything we can to ensure that an innocent Texan is not killed by the state, or even a potentially innocent Texan is not killed.”

    The Cameron County District Attorney, who was not involved in Lucio’s original prosecution, is handling the appeal.

    “Melissa Lucio lived every parent’s nightmare when she lost her daughter in a tragic accident,” Lucio’s attorney, Vanessa Potkin, said in a statement released by the Innocence Project, an advocacy group that seeks to exonerate convicted prisoners. unjustly.

    “It became a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from when she was sent to death row for a crime that never happened. After 16 years on death row, it’s time for the nightmare to end. Melissa should be home right now with her. children and grandchildren”.

    David K. Li

    Senior Breaking News Reporter

    Nicole Duarte , Ioan Filippelli and Anthony Cusumano contributed.

    Online Niel
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