She has maintained her innocence, and Cornell Law School professor Sandra Babcock has called the prosecution "by far the weakest capital case I've ever seen". We decided to follow five of them. They also argued that a judge's order to exclude expert testimony on the effects of trauma had "deprived Melissa of the only means she had of explaining that, notwithstanding her demeanor and self-incriminating statements, she was innocent of her daughter's murder. He said, among other problems, Lucio didnt have adequate counsel. Eddie Rantz, the homicide detective who worked the case, believed Frank and Lacaze planned the robbery to get revenge on Williams. Shes a mother of 14 children, with a history of drug abuse and a life of poverty, who is accused of abusing her younger daughter to death.. Lucio, a 53-year-old Mexican-American mum, was found guilty in 2008 of the death of her two-year-old daughter Mariah, who died in 2007 after falling down the stairs.. [26], On March 6, 2022, in the main segment of an episode of the HBO show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver called "Wrongful Convictions", her case was the main one to be mentioned as a reason for the reform of the American justice system and specifically, the abolition of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). Peer into the lives of five of these women as they grapple with the challenges and horror of living in one of the most terrible places imaginable. In this episode of Women of Death Row, Mariel tells the story of Dame Alice Kyteler, a woman condemned and burned to death at the stake for witchcraft in Ireland on November 3, 1324. This is common among women on death row, including Lisa Montgomery, the last woman executed in the United States. Women on Death Row | Prison DocumentaryBehind Bars: South Cotabato Jail, Philippines: https://youtu.be/A8slYgeqGLwIn the United States, 54 women are "on hold. Content Licensed by ITV Global. Citing trial court interference in her right to present a defense, a federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of Melissa Lucio, a Texas mother who was sentenced to death for murdering her two-year-old daughter.In an unpublished, unsigned opinion issued on July 29, 2019, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said that trial court rulings that blocked Melissa Elizabeth Lucio from calling an expert witness to challenge the reliability of statements she gave to police violated Lucios right to present a complete defense. The appeals court reversed a federal district court decision that had upheld Lucios conviction and death sentence and returned the case to the lower court to grant Lucio a new trial.Several people have been exonerated from death row after being wrongfully convicted of killing children. Her story became the subject of the 2020. They will be joined by Reps. James White (R-Hillister), Lacey Hull (R-Houston), Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston), and Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas). Lacaze had slipped behind Williams and shot him in the neck, severing his spinal cord and instantly paralyzing him. They found various items of baby paraphernalia.[3]. McDermott is the second woman in California sentenced to death penalty after the state reinstated . Newly released on Amazon and other streaming platforms, the unsettling documentary by French director Sabrina Van Tassel raises questions about the conviction of Melissa Lucio, the first. [11][12] A pathologist, Dr. Norma J. Farley, testified that the childs autopsy indicated that she did not die from falling down stairs, and instead her injuries were consistent with a death from blunt force trauma. In May, however, the Louisiana Supreme Court issued a 90-day stay of execution effective June 10 pending ongoing appeals. [31] Carty also claims that she was interviewed without counsel being present on one occasion. Chau told Frank she knew what she had done and cried to the officers that Frank had committed the crimes. However, since she is already facing the death penalty for the Kim Anh murders, they have made no effort to try her for her father's death. She was hired on February 7, 1993, and graduated from the police academy on February 28. Frank was profiled in an episode of Deadly Women in 2009,[1] Snapped: Killer Couples in 2015,[2] and I'd Kill For You in 2016. She was placed under arrest. She was aided by her probable lover, drug dealer Rogers Lacaze. Carty asked Hernandez to write a letter for her because she did not want the letter to be in her own handwriting. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. As early as August 1993, Frank's superiors wanted to send her back to the academy for further training. In cases like this where you have a child death, there are experts that come in and do research and analysis, her attorneys decided to go to trial without allowing those experts to complete their work, said White. She has mainly focused on social issues such as underage sex trafficking, children in ultra-right-wing movements, women in prison and the Holocaust. [2] Carty studied pharmacology at the University of Houston. Justice is not suddenly restored because another person dies. Hulu has acquired U.S rights to Sabrina Van Tassel's documentary 'The State of Texas vs. Melissa,' which was selected for Tribeca in 2020. . On one occasion, Lacaze accompanied her on a complaint call where she introduced him as a "trainee"; on other occasions, she introduced Lacaze as her nephew. Her brother Rene movingly describes her childhood traumas and problems with addiction. They said that the evidence against Lucio is troubling and that they at least want a stay of execution. Box 301501 Montgomery, Alabama 36130-1501 webmaster@doc.alabama.gov They dont stand a chance in a court of law.. [29], Carty's case received media attention in September 2009 when her image was placed on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square by her British supporters. Crawford was exonerated in 2017.Vicente Benavides was exonerated in April 2018 after 26 years on Californias death row, wrongly convicted of raping, sodomizing, and murdering his girlfriends 21-month-old daughter. Frank and Lacaze had been at the restaurant twice earlier in the night to get leftover food to eat. US prisons are filled with countless Melissa Lucios. [13], Lucios defense argued that Mariah's injuries were from falling down the stairs, and that Lucio's psychological functioning contributed to her conflicting reports given to authorities. Dive in these women's lives full of horror, hope, death, and love, in one of the most terrible places in the USA, death row. The United Kingdom contends in its amicus curiae brief[23] in the US Supreme Court that it regards the US as having breached its obligations under international law. It was overturned in July 2019 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, but the state of Texas appealed the ruling. Lucio was convicted in 2008, and her execution date is April 27, when she is set to receive a lethal injection. The documentary outlines why her conviction was an egregious miscarriage of justice. The association between Frank and Lacaze became noticeable after other police officers witnessed Lacaze driving her car, and even observed him moving her police unit at the scene of an accident she was investigating. Depicting an elderly woman and man with stern expressions, they remind the viewer of the North Korean leaders, rather than those of a free country. Ninety percent of court cases are won by the State. [9][28][10] The British government filed an amicus brief in her support. The NOPD was chronically short-handed; at the time, its officers were paid less than in similarly sized cities, it was losing officers faster than they could be replaced, and the ranks had been decimated by several arrests for murder and drug activity. As Chau bolted through the restaurant's front door to the safety of arriving officers, Frank immediately identified herself as a police officer. They argued that the defense needed to conduct "an investigation into the defendant's background for possible mitigating evidence." According to this second warrant, Frank was scheduled for execution by lethal injection on December 8, 2008. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and she now faces her last appeal.more, Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in More. Carty's mother testified that her daughter did not mention that she was pregnant when they talked on 13 May or the following days, and Carty did not appear to be pregnant around that time. The filmmaker added that it is hard to imagine how traumatic a death sentence is for a family and the collateral damage it creates. Kirby's ruling has no effect on Frank's conviction. Chau, Quoc, and the employee hid in the rear of a large walk-in cooler in the kitchen, turning out its light as they entered. Law enforcement, EMS officials ramp up efforts as spring break rolls in, Pleasant Weekend; Next Storm Chance Not Until Friday, Forecast: Beautiful weekend weather, warmer for next week, Family of woman on death row claims she's innocent, pleads for her release, Interim Study Committee on Criminal Justice Reform, 17-year-old Laci hopes to get adopted before she ages out of the Texas foster care system, 16-year-old driver tossed in Elgin tornado lucky to be alive, 'This is our only source of income': Round Rock family sees their food truck destroyed in tornado, Austin PD SWAT team responding to North Austin Walmart. Never before and probably, never again will such unlimited access ever be given again.Brace yourself to go on an extremely emotional journey as a man, considered by everyone, including the PRISONS WARDEN, to be completely innocent is fighting to stop a seemingly, unstoppable execution.If you would like to end capital punishment in your country (U.S) or any country, visit https://reprieve.org/ to find out what you can do.THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN UPLOADED TO TEACH/EDUCATE THE PUBLIC ON THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT THAT IS CARRIED OUT IN THEIR NAME \u0026 WHAT IT REALLY MEANS. Detained in Arizona, Shawna Forde . Lucio is on death row and was scheduled to be executed on April 27.. That is why most poor defendants accept plea deals even if theyre innocent. Additional terms apply. They told me that I was the first person in 13 years to ask anything about her casethat even her lawyer at the time of her trial had never tried to meet them. Nationwide, as of October, there are over 2,500 men and women sitting on death row that consist of 1,062 Black people, 1,076 White people, 343 Latinos, 24 Native Americans, 47 Asians and one. In February, Lucio's family members gathered in Austin to say that she is innocent and should be released from prison. In this chilling absolute documentary, Trevor meets inmate Fredrick Baer who killed a mother and her 5-year-old child in cold-blooded murder who is still hoping to escape the lethal injection on death row and avoid capital punishment. [22], In April 2022, a juror on the trial, Johnny Galvan Jr., wrote in the Houston Chronicle that he had wrongly succumbed to peer pressure during deliberations and had changed his vote from a life sentence to the death penalty. After midnight on March 4, 1995, Frank and Lacaze visited Kim Anh, a Vietnamese restaurant run by the Vu family in New Orleans East. If a majority of the Board of Pardons and Paroles were to recommend it, Governor Greg Abbott could grant clemency. Since 1976, Texas has executed more people than any other state (572), more than one-third the total number (1,534) of victims of this barbaric punishment, and is one of only two states to have put anyone to death during the pandemic. With the latest camera equipment used by well-known filmmakers working for famous production studios. He was found guilty as charged and sentenced to death. Women on Death Row | Prison DocumentaryBehind Bars: South Cotabato Jail, Philippines: https://youtu.be/A8slYgeqGLwIn the United States, 54 women are \"on hold\" for the execution of their death sentence. But Ms. Lucio and her family never got to mourn the loss of her youngest daughter because, within hours of her passing, they were swept up into a nightmare that has lasted more than 14 years and torn their family apart. At that time, Wallace broke away, ran, and picked up a TEC-9 semi-automatic weapon off the grass. [25], A 2020 documentary by Sabrina Van Tassel titled The State of Texas vs. Melissa follows Lucio's case. [2], On October 18, 2006, Frank's lawyers argued before the Louisiana Supreme Court that her death sentence should be overturned because she was denied state-funded experts to help prepare for the sentencing phase of the trial. I was wrong", "I am sending a letter to Governor @GregAbbot_Tx", "Texas death row prisoner Melissa Lucio granted stay of execution", "Hulu Acquires U.S. Rights to Tribeca Documentary, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Melissa_Lucio&oldid=1139933110, Articles with failed verification from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 17 February 2023, at 16:02. Frank pistol-whipped 17-year-old Cuong when he hesitated in revealing the location of the money. Linda Carty and Melissa Lucio are imprisoned in Texas. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "[24], On April 25, 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution and ordered the 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron County to consider new evidence of Lucio's innocence in the death of her daughter. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, women are rarely sentenced to death in the United States and executions of women are even rarer. Linda Carty and Melissa Lucio are imprisoned in Texas. Moore is awaiting execution in North Carolina for her boyfriend's 1986 arsenic poisoning. We followed them down the green line.Subscribe Free Documentary Channel for free: https://bit.ly/2YJ4XzQJoin the club and become a Free Documentary Patron: https://www.patreon.com/freedocumentaryInstagram: https://instagram.com/free.documentary/Facebook: https://bit.ly/2QfRxbGTwitter: https://bit.ly/2QlwRiI#FreeDocumentary #Documentary #WomenOnDeathRowFree Documentary is dedicated to bringing high-class documentaries to you on YouTube for free. Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in Texas. Following Mariah's death, Lucio was arrested and questioned for seven hours by Texas Ranger Victor Escalon without a lawyer present, and without receiving food or water. In November of 2020, TV One debuted a movie inspired by Antoinette Frank called Blood On Her Badge Archived November 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. Earlier this month, the popular HBO show "Last Week Tonight". Viewers of Death Row's Women with Susanna Reid tonight clashed over whether Darlie Routier really murdered her two sons. His main tip-off had been using Williams' Chevron credit card at a Chevron station in Gretna just minutes after the robbery and murders. Bryant ordered Wallace to drop the gun, which he did immediately and was restrained; Lacaze then lunged toward Wallace, but Bryant grabbed him. Dive in these women's lives full of horror, hope, death, and love, in one of the most terrible places in the USA, death row. Cancel anytime. In a 2005 retrospective, Chuck Hustmyre said, "As for those human bones unearthed beneath Franks house, so far, authorities have made no serious effort to identify them. Medical evidence indicated that the cause of death was likely cystic kidney disease or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). [24] They assert that no scientific evidence exists that establishes that she was at the scene of the crime,[5] although her fingerprints were found in the car containing the victim's body. 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