Judy: As we reported earlier,
today the Texas court of
criminal appeals granted a stay
of execution for
52-year-old Melissa Lucio, who
who had been set to be the first
hispanic woman put to death by
the state in modern history.
It was a big win for advocates
who argued Lucio was wrongly
convicted, and that her case
represents larger problems with
the criminal justice system.
Amna nawaz reports.
Reporter: In 2007, Melissa Lucio
was the mother of 12 children,
pregnant with twins and
struggling to provide for them.
While moving from one home to
another, who trip -- her
two-year-old daughter died.
She says that two days before,
Mariah fell down a steep flight
of stairs at their house.
Authorities suspected abuse and
began interrogating her after
her dollars death.
>> You need to tell us right now
what happened.
This is your chance.
Right now, it looks like you are
a cold-blooded killer.
Are you a cold-blooded killer or
were you a frustrated mother who
took it out on her for whatever
reason?
>> No.
>> It has got to be one.
Reporter: She denied wrongdoing
over 100 times.
After five hours of aggressive
questioning, eventually told
police "I guess I did it."
That was used as a confession at
her trial along with testimony
that Mariah's intake -- injuries
indicated abuse.
She was convicted of murder in
2008 and sentenced to death.
Since her conviction, many have
raised questions about her
confession being coerced, her
trauma as a survivor of sexual
and domestic abuse and how that
may have played into the
confession and the use of junk
science and misleading evidence
at her trial.
Investigators found head trauma
in Mariah consistent with the
kind of fall from the stairs
Lucio described.
Lucio's adult children said she
never abused them and have been
pleading for clemency.
A group of more than 100 Texas
lawmakers asked for her
execution to be stopped along
with five of her original
journals.
In the 14 years in conviction,
Lucio has maintained her
innocence.
Just this afternoon, Texas'
court of criminal of appeals
granted Lucio a stay two days
before she was set to die by
lethal injection.
Joining me now to discuss
Melissa Lucio's case is Vanessa
potkin, director of special
litigation at the innocence
project, which is representing
Lucio.
Welcome to the newshour.
I want to begin with the news
this afternoon, when you heard
that stay had been granted,
halting the execution for the
time being.
What was your reaction?
Vanessa: That news was the best
we could have expected.
Because clemency would have
turned Melissa sentence into
essentially a life sentence.
But what the state did today was
put a halt on her execution so
that we could go back to the
trial court, and the new
evidence of her innocence could
be litigated.
No court has ever considered the
new evidence, the new
scientific, the new medical
evidence supporting her
innocence claim.
This really opens the door to
her conviction being vacated to
a new trial.
We are very confident that given
the compelling evidence of her
innocence, if this case was
tried today, she would be
acquitted.
Amna: Give us a sense of what
happens next.
It goes back to the district
court, some of the new evidence
will be considered.
How quickly could that move?
Vanessa: The process will
probably take several months.
It is hard to completely
anticipate.
There are some issues that need
to be resolved.
The district attorney's office
has a conflict of interest.
The judge considering the case
likely has to be recused.
So we need to sort out how this
hearing will take place.
But, we will be going back to
the trial court to have a
hearing.
The court of criminal appeals
directed that Melissa Lucio's
claims be heard.
The states use of false
testimony, the new scientific
evidence of her innocence, and
the fact that favorable evidence
was withheld by the prosecution
at her original trial.
Amna: We did see a statement
from Melissa Lucio today.
She said "I'm grateful the court
has given me the chance to live
and prove my innocence.
Mariah is iny heart today and
always.
I'm deeply grateful to everyone
who has prayed for me and spoke
out on my behalf."
I want to ask you about how you
came to be involved in this
case.
I wonder, early on when you
heard about it, what
specifically jumped out to you?
What told you something might be
wrong that was worth your
attention?
Vanessa: The innocence project
became involved in Melissa's
case 100 days ago.
Relatively recently.
After her execution date was
set.
We had heard of Melissa's case
from another one of our clients,
who is on death row with
Melissa.
If you think about god, there
were six women on Texas's death
row, two the innocence project
is representing.
We heard about Melissa's case,
we started to look into it, and
Melissa's case has two of the
leading causes of wrongful
convictions at its core.
A false incriminating statement
that came from coerce
interrogation, one out of three
people proven innocent by DNA
testing falsely confessed during
custodial interrogation to
crimes they were completely
innocent of, an false and
misleading scientific evidence
is one of the leading causes of
wrongful convictions.
About half of wrongful
convictions that have been
overturned with DNA evidence
have involved some type of
faulty forensics.
Amna: What about her own history
of debt -- of domestic and
sexual abuse?
How does that factor in?
Vanessa: It is really egregious
that not only was she the victim
of childhood sexual abuse and
trauma, and she had to endure
that and she is a survivor of
those experiences, but those
experiences were used against
her.
She was judged by paramedics and
police who responded to the
scene who did not think she was
acting like a stereotypical
mother should because she was
detached, because some of the
mechanisms that helped her
survive her abuse kicked in and
reflected her demeanor.
That was used against her.
It really was a disadvantage in
the interrogation.
We now know that trauma and a
history of abuse is a
vulnerability for false
confession when these type of
coercive interrogation
techniques are used.
Amna: You became involved in the
case recently.
In the minute we have left, it
has been 14 years since her
conviction.
Why did it take so long for so
many of these details to come
out and get the attention they
are getting?
Vanessa: Unfortunately, this is
the way our criminal justice
system works.
Once you are convicted, it is
extraordinarily difficult to
overturn a wrongful conviction.
And a lot of times, there is
triaging going on.
You are trying to stop an
execution, and the evidence of
her innocence, some of it has
been there all along.
Some of the evidence could have
been presented if her defense
attorneys reached out to the
right medical experts, but they
did not do it.
The fact is that we are to two
days away from sending a woman
to an execution based on a crime
that never even occurred.
Amna: That is Vanessa Popkin,
director of special litigation
at the innocence project
speaking with us tonight.
Thank you so much for your time.
Vanessa: Thank you for telling
Melissa story.