Neglectful mom looked guilty, so state ran with it

Melissa Lucio is no Mother of the Year.

That’s what Peter Gilman, Lucio’s lead defense attorney, said during her 2008 capital murder trial for the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah. On this point, there is no dispute. Whether she is guilty of murder, or deserving of the death penalty, is very much in question.

Lucio, a 53-yearold Harlingen mother of 14, is scheduled for execution April 27. But her Innocence Project attorneys have raised compelling questions about her prosecution and conviction: a coerced confession, a false autopsy report, regretful jury members, an ineffective defense and a district attorney who was sentenced to prison.

Appearances can be everything, and during interrogation, Lucio’s slumped posture and passive behavior painted the picture of guilt. She was a drug addict, high school dropout and mother of 12, who was pregnant with twins and well known to Child Protective Services.

Experts have said Lucio’s flat affect and lack of emotion were survival skills. She had been bowing to abusive male authority figures her whole life. Her mother’s boyfriend and other family members sexually abused her at the age of 6. She married at 16, but her first and second husbands abused her.

As the Texas Council on Family Violence wrote in support of Lucio: “Her story is a woeful illustration of a family’s plight and fate in the absence of supportive services and tailored interventions.”

Instead of helping Lucio, our state’s systems failed her. According to Lucio’s attorneys, of the nearly 20 women convicted of capital murder of a child in Texas, only Lisa Coleman, who starved and abused her girlfriend’s 9year-old son, also received a death sentence. Unlike Lucio’s case, CPS had documented Coleman’s abuse of the child.

Ernestina Espinoza, one of four jury members and one alternate juror from the trial who now support clemency or a reprieve for Lucio, said she believed CPS was “equally responsible” for Mariah’s death. Court records include thousands of pages of

CPS records, detailing reports of neglect but never abuse.

Lucio’s younger brother Rene said he witnessed daily his sister locking herself in the bathroom to either get high or sober. “Her demons took over everything she had,” he said in the documentary “The State of Texas vs. Melissa.”

Again, neglect and addiction are documented, but not physical abuse.

Lucio’s family was drowning in dysfunction. Their filthy home had no water for at least a month, food was scarce and food stamps were sold to purchase marijuana, CPS caseworkers documented. In

December 2001, Lucio’s family had been homeless for months. They were sleeping in the park near Zavala Elementary School and using the school for food and hygiene.

In September 2004, weeks after Mariah was born with cocaine in her system, CPS removed all of Lucio’s children for neglect.

There was a turn for the better. On Nov. 21, 2006, Lucio and her second husband, Robert Alvarez, moved into a three-bedroom rental home and CPS returned their kids. But soon after, life unraveled, abuse escalated and they were evicted, moving to a run-down second-floor apartment without electricity.

Next, according to Innocence Project attorneys, came the tragic accident: On Feb. 15, Mariah and a teenage sister were inside with Lucio as she packed for another move, but Mariah opened the unlocked screen door to the flight of 14 stairs outside. Lucio found Mariah, whose developmental delays and turned-in foot made her prone to falling, at the bottom of the stairs. Mariah’s lip was bleeding, but she seemed OK.

By Feb. 17, Mariah was congested, sleeping excessively and refusing to eat. Exhausted from the move, Lucio considered taking her to the doctor the next day. Lucio put Mariah down for a nap and a short while later, Mariah wasn’t breathing. The family did CPR and called 911.

Next came the police interrogation, capital murder conviction and death row.

In the documentary, Lucio is full of lament for her daughter. “I failed her, I failed her in many ways,” she said.

Yes, but the safety net and criminal justice system also failed Lucio.

In their clemency application, Lucio’s attorneys point to layers of tragedy: “The Board has an opportunity to avert a tragic miscarriage of justice in this case — both by sparing an innocent woman from execution and by preventing the unfathomable anguish her death would cause to Mariah’s already-traumatized family.”

Haven’t Lucio and her family suffered enough?

Lucio