Kardashian calls on Abbott to stop execution
Kim Kardashian is urging Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to stop the execution of Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio as the Harlingen mother of 14 nears her April 27 execution date.
In a now-deleted tweet, Kardashian told her 72 million followers that the death of Lucio’s 2-year-old daughter was a “tragic accident.”
Kardashian, the reality TV star who is studying law in California, called on her followers to sign an online petition from the Innocence Project supporting Lucio’s release. She also shared a letter that Lucio’s other children signed asking that Abbott and the board spare her life.
“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,” Kardashian wrote.
Kardashian’s media representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Lucio has spent the last 15 years on Texas’ death row following her conviction for capital murder in the 2007 death of her toddler, Mariah. Lucio’s family says Mariah accidentally fell down a rickety flight of stairs while the family was moving out of a Harlingen apartment. Two days later, they say, she died in her sleep during a nap.
Investigators argued at the time that significant bruises found on Mariah’s body indicated child abuse. But new forensic evidence points suggests Mariah likely suffered head trauma from the fall, which could explain the bruising all over her body.
If she is not granted a reprieve, she would be the first Latina in Texas to be executed in the modern era and the first Texas woman executed in nearly a decade.
The last woman to be put to death in Texas was Lisa Coleman in 2014, who was convicted of beating and starving her girlfriend’s 9-year-old son to death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Lucio’s lawyers argue that her case was clouded in corruption, unexplored evidence and bias. They point to a former district attorney, who is now incarcerated for corruption, as one of the many culprits behind what they view as her unfair prosecution and sentencing. They say police coerced her confession during a late-night interrogation on the night of Mariah’s death while Lucio was pregnant with twins. They also state she was inadequately represented during trial by a defense attorney who later earned a top position with the DA’s office, and that her background as a victim of repeated sexual and domestic abuse was never presented to a jury.
With her execution date looming, Lucio has become the focus of media attention with advocates, lawmakers and clergy members banding together to bring attention to her case. A 2020 Hulu documentary that argues she may be innocent has generated online support, and more than 80 Texas lawmakers have chimed in, asking that she be granted clemency or a new trial.
Seven state lawmakers traveled hundreds of miles earlier this week to update Lucio on their efforts to stop her execution, the Associated Press reported. They were also able to connect with her through embrace and prayer.
Lucio’s lawyers with the Innocence Project have filed a mountain of motions on her behalf, including a recent clemency motion that includes statements from five jurors from Lucio’s capital murder trial in 2008 who voted to sentence Lucio to death. These jurors say they would have delivered a different verdict, and with one saying he felt pressured to vote for a death sentence but now regrets it.
“Even at the time of trial, when it seemed to me that Lucio’s defense lawyers were hardly making a case for her life, I did not want to sentence her to death,” the juror wrote.
Lucio’s family has been holding rallies around the state and daily prayer vigils outside the Cameron County courthouse, pleading with the current district attorney, Luis Saenz, to withdraw Lucio’s death warrant.
Lucio’s oldest son, John Lucio, stopped Saenz outside the courthouse on March 23 and told him of the jurors who have expressed concerns over their verdict. After years of silence on the case, Saenz was seen on video telling John Lucio he “would be glad to take a look.”
Saenz’s power to order that the death warrant be withdrawn and the case be investigated again is the “best and fastest path to freedom for Melissa” according to officials with Death Penalty Action. Saenz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If the state board does make a recommendation to slow or stop the execution, it would not come until two days before Lucio’s execution date.
John Lucio said during a Death Penalty Action live stream on Tuesday that his mother is in good spirits , and that Kardashian’s support was a welcome bit of good news.
“She couldn’t believe it,” he said. “She was really just in disbelief” that Kardashian would take a position on her case.
John Lucio said Melissa is grateful and hopeful.
“She tells me she is coming home,” John Lucio said. “When my momma comes home, she’s got a lot of cooking for us to do.”
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has given prosecutors and the trial judge until April 11 to respond to their defense request to file additional challenges.