The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday rejected a lower court's finding that death row inmate Melissa Lucio is innocent of the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter.
Lucio has spent 18 years on death row, but questions about her possible innocence have focused on whether daughter Mariah Alvarez's fatal head trauma was caused by abuse or an accidental fall.
Paramedics called to Lucio's Harlingen home, where she lived with her nine children, found a badly injured and unresponsive Mariah, who Lucio said had fallen down a flight of stairs. Hospital staff found multiple bruises on Mariah's body and ruled she had died from blunt force trauma to the head.
The appeals court stayed Lucio's execution in 2022 and directed a lower court to review claims that new scientific evidence contradicted testimony that Mariah's injuries could only have been caused by abuse. Defense lawyers also argued that prosecutors suppressed favorable evidence during her trial.
In separate 2024 rulings, District Judge Arturo Nelson — who had presided over Lucio's original trial — recommended that the state's highest criminal court overturn her sentence and declare Lucio "actually innocent."
Instead, the Court of Criminal Appeals cast doubt on her claims and said Nelson's rulings relied too heavily on Lucio's interpretation of events and not the prosecution's case.
"We decline to adopt any of the habeas court's findings and conclusions, which exclusively reflect Applicant's interpretation of the evidence and are often unsupported," the court said in an unsigned opinion from which four of the nine judges dissented.
Three judges — David Newell, Lee Finley and David Schenck — filed dissenting opinions and a fourth, Scott Walker, dissented from the ruling without filing an opinion.
Newell noted that prosecutors conceded during Lucio's appeal that they had withheld material evidence during her trial, and admonished the court for ignoring their concession.
"The facts in this case are devastating. This makes the State's failure to disclose material exculpatory evidence all the more tragic," Newell wrote.
Two judges, Burt Richardson and Gina Parker, filed concurring opinions. Parker's opinion was one page followed by eight photos of Mariah's body that showed a significant number of bruises, scratches and what prosecutors at trial claimed was a bite mark on her back. Parker wrote that she included the images "because a picture can be worth a thousand words."
Part of Lucio's appeal included new evidence that Mariah had a blood coagulation disorder her family was unaware of. Defense lawyers argued the disorder accounted for the bruising, but Richardson's 132-page opinion said the bruising could not explained by the clotting disorder alone.
Richardson also described "significant inexplicable dissonances" in Nelson's rulings.
"Even when viewed for any cumulative effect, the evidence [Lucio] presents undermines and contradicts other evidence that might otherwise offer a modicum of support for her case," Richardson wrote.
Lucio's lawyer, Vanessa Potkin, said she will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Between Judge Nelson's detailed findings of innocence, and District Attorney [Luis] Saenz's concession of error, we are confident that the courts will clear Melissa Lucio and allow her to return home to her children and grandchildren," Potkin said.
If exonerated, Lucio would be the first woman declared innocent from Texas death row, joining 18 exonerated men since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976
Lucio's conviction has received significant public attention and criticism, including from state lawmakers. Before the appeals court granted a stay of execution for Lucio in 2022, a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged the state parole board to consider Lucio's innocence.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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