Woman's impending execution sparks rare bipartisan agreement, rallies in her support

People across the country rallied this weekend in support of Texas death row inmate Melissa Lucio, who is set to be executed this week. "We are hopeful. I spoke to Melissa’s son this morning and they are visiting her in Gatesville," supporter Carmen Ayala said, according to Fox 4. "She’s hopeful too, because of all the attention this has gotten. We hope it’s enough to put a stop on the 27th." Lucio was convicted of killing her 2-year-old daughter Mariah in South Texas in 2007. An autopsy ruled the young girl died due to blunt force trauma to the head. Lucio’s supporters and lawyers say she is the victim of a coerced confession, which came after hours of interrogation by police with Lucio initially denying she killed her daughter more than 100 times, Fox 4 reported.

Her lawyers added that forensic evidence allegedly showing Mariah’s injuries were from her falling down stairs was never heard in court. Five jurors in the case have also expressed doubt in the verdict. The case has also brought a rare instance of Democrat and Republican lawmakers agreeing that she should not be executed. "It will be a historic, irreversible blunder on the part of the State of Texas if we go forward with this," Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach said, according to the New York Times. "I’ve never seen a more troubling case than the case of Melissa Lucio." State lawmakers pressed Democratic Cameron County district attorney Luis V. Saenz earlier this month at a hearing to withdraw the execution warrant. He declined to intervene in the matter. Lucio worked as a part-time home health aide and struggled with drug abuse. Her family was homeless at one point and Child Protective Services previously stepped in and took some of her other children away due to neglect. Lucio’s lawyers, however, say she has no documented history of abusing her children, the New York Times reported. "We are on the verge of sending a woman to an execution based on false and misleading medical evidence," Vanessa Potkin, Director of Special Litigation at the Innocence Project, said according to the New York Post.