The State of Texas vs. Melissa
There are times when the American legal system makes me cringe. Watching the facts depicted in Director Sabrina Van Tassel’s documentary “The State of Texas vs. Melissa” is one of them.
Melissa Lucio, a 48-year-old mother of 14, has been on Death Row in Texas for 12 years for a crime she did not commit – the death of her two-year-old daughter Mariah. But an incompetent defense and a crooked prosecutor conspired to make her the first Hispanic woman on Death Row, one appeal away from execution.
Melissa is poor and Hispanic, but a hard worker and one whom no one (other than the law) has accused of violent behavior. She is also addicted to cocaine, but manages to limit use to an hour a day in the bathroom, careful not to let her kids see her. She has a history of abuse herself, and had five children by the age of 24.
But when Mariah is found dead of blunt force trauma to the head, the police jump to the wrong conclusion after a grueling 7-plus-hour interrogation in which they finally ask Melissa to demonstrate how she would spank Mariah. How they could leap from spanking to blunt force head trauma will forever be a mystery.
Another attorney has looked at the paperwork and noted that there should have been a motion to suppress her testimony (given under duress), but that didn’t happen. Offered a 30-year sentence, Melissa refused, saying she was not guilty. The defense offered no witnesses. And here she is, with one final appeal – the Supreme Court – standing between her and execution.
The story is all too familiar, and all too depressing, further evidence that our land of the free and home of the brave where everyone gets a fair trial is not quite working as it should.
Van Tassel has made an absorbing film. Its only drawback is that we’ve heard the story so many times before. Will we ever learn?
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